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CARPENTER'S
WORLD TRAVELS

Familiar Talks About Countries
and Peoples

WITH THE AUTHOR ON THE SPOT AND
THE READER IN HIS HOME, BASED
ON THREE HUNDRED THOU-
SAND MILES OF TRAVEL
OVER THE GLOBE

THE HOLY LAND

AND SYRIA

ji f
i

CHRISTIANS RULE THE LAND OF CHRIST
Seven hundred years of Moslem supremacy in the Holy Land ended
with General Allenby's modest entrance into Jerusalem. Then arose the
cry, "The day of deliverance is come"

CARPENTER'S WORLD TRAVELS

THE HOLY LAND

AND SYRIA

FRANK G. CARPENTER

litt.dJ f.r.g.s.

NINETY-SIX PAGES OF
ILLUSTRATIONS FROM
ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS
AND TWO MAPS IN COLOUR

GARDEN CITY NEW YORK

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1922

COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
FRANK G. CARPENTER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
AT

THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY. N. Y

First Edition

DEC-1 ?2

flu a f

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

IN THE publication of this volume on the Holy Land
and Syria, I wish to thank the Secretary of State for
letters which have given me the assistance of our
official representatives in the countries visited. I also
thank our Secretary of Agriculture and our Secretary of
Labour for appointing me an Honorary Commissioner of
their Departments in foreign lands. Their credentials
have been of the greatest value, making accessible to
me sources of information seldom opened to the ordi-
nary traveller.

I wish to acknowledge also the valuable assistance
and cooperation rendered by Mr. Dudley Harmon, my
editor, and Miss Josephine Lehmann in the revision of
the notes dictated or penned by me on the ground.

While most of the illustrations are from my own neg-
atives, there are certain photographs which have been
supplied by the Near East Relief, the Red Cross, the
Publishers' Photo Service, and the Zionist Organization
of America, all of which are protected by copyright.

vii

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I Just a Word Before We Start . . i

II In the Land of Goshen .... 4

III The City of Jonah 14

IV By Railway to the Land of Judea . 23
V From Dan to Beersheba .... 30

VI Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century 36

VII Around the Walls of the Holy City 43

VIII "The Tribes of God Go Thither" . 48

IX On the Site of Solomon's Temple . 57

X Jews of Palestine 68

XI The Evil Eye 78

XII Easter in Jerusalem 84

XIII Washing the Feet of the Apostles 95

XIV A Talk with the Greek Patriarch ioi
XV Among the Money Changers . . . 1 1 1

XVI Excavating Old Jericho . . . . 119

XVII The Dead Sea and the Jordan . . 129

XVIII Bethlehem 138

XIX Among the Samaritans 149

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XX Farming in the Land of Milk and

Honey 159

XXI The Colonies and Their Develop-
ment 169

XXII Where Our Saviour Spent His Boy-
hood . . 177

XXIII On the Sea of Galilee .... 187

XXIV The Zionist Movement .... 196

XXV The World's Oldest City . . . . 204

XXVI Shopping in the Street Called

Straight . . . . . ... . 214

XXVII The Veiled Women of Damascus . 223

XXVIII Baalbek the Wonderful . . . . 232

XXIX Across the Lebanon Mountains by

Rail 242

XXX American Leaven in the Near East 252

XXXI At the Shrine of Diana of the

Ephesians 262

XXXII Armenia, the Suffering .... 271

XXXIII Palestine and Syria Under New

Rulers 280

Seeing the World 287

Bibliography 289

Index . 293

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Christians rule the Land of Christ Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Primitive water wheel in the Land of Goshen . . 8

Through rocky wastes to the top of Mt. Sinai . . 9

Egyptians toiling where the Israelites made bricks . 16

We go ashore in small boats at J aria .... 17

House of Simon the Tanner 17

The men of Palestine are very strong .... 20

Cactus hedges are used instead of fences ... 21

The crude plough of Palestine 28

The children of the Holy Land 28

A sheeted Balaam and his ass 29

Fuel is scarce in the land of no woods . . . . 32

The Pool of Hezekiah 33

Airplane view of Jerusalem 36

The Kaiser's breach in the Wall of Jerusalem . . 37

The roofs of Jerusalem 44

View of the Mt. of Olives 44

Jerusalem seen from a bell tower 45

Sheep and goats outside the walls 48

Lepers beg at the Gates' of Jerusalem .... 49

The roads to Jaffa and Bethlehem 49

Water carriers old and new 52

"Going up to Jerusalem" 53

A donkey ambulance for pilgrims on the march . 5 3

Pilgrims bathing in the River Jordan .... 60

Russian women walk from shrine to shrine ... 61

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Mosque of Omar

FACING PAGE
. 64

The Jews' wailing place

. 65

A maid of Jerusalem

,,. 68

Snow in the streets of Jerusalem

Three learned Jews of the Holy City

. 76

• 77

Inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

. 80

Keeping off the evil spirits

Grandfather and grandson — both beggars .

. 84

Pilgrims praying in the Via Dolorosa .

. 85

Waiting for the Holy Fire

. 92

Gathering the olive crop

• 93

The Church of the Lord's Prayer . . • .

Washing the feet of the twelve bishops .

• 97

A tailor shop in Jerusalem

100

The church of the best religious paintings .

IOI

Commercializing the holiness of the Holy City .

. 108

Moslem priest reading the Koran ....

. 108

. 109

Bethlehem maids

1 12

. 113

A Turkish restaurant in Jerusalem ....

1 16

. 116

• ii7

At the Tomb of Lazarus

. 125

The Healing Stone on the way to Jordan

. 125

128

. 132

• 133

xii

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Christmas Day services in Bethlehem . . . . 140

Young women and their dowries -. 141

At Jacob's Well 144

The Sacred Scroll of the Samaritans 145

The Feast of the Passover on Mt. Gerizim . . . 148

Pulling tares from the wheat 149

The camel blubbers as his hair is clipped . . . 149

Why Palestinians use camels for ploughing . . . 156

Modern farm machinery in the Jewish colony . . 156

The sheep that was lost is found 157

Colonists terrace the hillsides with stone walls . . 160

Picking almonds 161

An avenue of cypresses and palms 164

A carpenter shop in Nazareth 165

Nazareth lies in a little amphitheatre . . . . 172

The boys of Nazareth are friendly 172

Mr. Carpenter and the Water Pot of Cana . . . 173

We cross the Sea of Galilee 176

The arched Gate of Tiberias 177

Fish from the Sea of Galilee 180

W-Capernaum — the city of prophecy fulfilled . . . 180

The colonists do much of their own work . . . 181

Making the bread of Bible times 188

A colonist's home near Lake Merom 189

A prayer niche in the Grand Mosque . . . . 192

Where Fatima lies buried in Damascus . . . . 193

A place of trees with a river flowing between . . 196

The Wall of St. Paul in Damascus 196

Shopping in the Street called Straight .... 197

The men come together in the horse market . . 204

"O Allah, send customers/' cry the bread-sellers . 204

Spinning wool into thread for a rug 205

xiii

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

The transportation monopoly of the Bedouin . . 208

At the end of the Bookseller's Bazaar .... 209

The street dress of the women of Damascus . . 224

Mr. Carpenter and the Columns at Baalbek . . 225

The portal of the Temple of Bacchus .... 228

The mighty columns of the Temple of the Sun . . 229

The nomad Bedouins live in brown tents . . . 236

A lonely grove of Lebanon cedars 237

Only a few of the great trees are left .... 240

Tree-lined avenues lead out of Beirut 24 1

The American University at Beirut 244

Stones carried up on the backs of camels . . . 244

A view of Beirut 245

The ruins of the City of Diana 252

Storks build their nests in the palaces of Ephesus . 252

Giving the silkworms their breakfast . . . . 253

Armenian children make themselves useful . . . 256

Getting the Armenians back to the land . . . 257

A cradle of Armenia 260

American flour sacks serve a double purpose . . 260

The water power of the Jordan will be developed . 261

The first steel bridge across the Jordan .... 268

Jerusalem now has a speed law 269

MAPS

The Holy Land 24

The Holy Land and Syria 40

xiv

THE HOLY LAND

AND SYRIA

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

CHAPTER I

JUST A WORD BEFORE WE START

BY THE World War the Moslem was forced to the
rear and Palestine has become more and more
i the possession of Christian and Jew. General
Allenby and his troops have taken the part of
Richard the Lion-hearted and the Crusaders, and
Jerusalem is at last out of the hands of the fol-
lowers of the Prophet Mohammed. Among the in-
novations that followed are the removal of the tax
gatherers who robbed the poor and the rich in the
name of the Sultan, the safeguarding of the roads from
the wandering Bedouins, and the reclaiming of the soil, so
that the country bids fair to become once more the land
of milk and honey that it was when it gladdened the
tired eyes of the Israelites after their long wanderings in
the desert of Sinai. Railways now cross the desert, con-
necting Palestine with Egypt and Turkey, and one may
go on the cars from Cairo to Jerusalem and from Paris,
via Constantinople and Damascus, to Galilee.

At the same time the Holy Land of the Bible is the
Holy Land of to-day. It has the same skies as those un-
der which the Wise Men followed the Star to the birth-
place of Jesus. It has the same flowers as those trodden

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

by Joseph and Mary, and the water in Jacob's Well is
still sweet, notwithstanding it is now compared with that
of the Nile which flows in pipes over the desert almost
to the Pool of Siloam. The sheep still pasture on the
hills as they did in the days of our Saviour, and boys and
girls may be seen picking the tares from the wheat. Asses
like Balaam's still carry their masters over the road,
although their brays are now and then drowned in the
horns of the automobiles; and the strange people one con-
stantly meets personify Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
Rachel and Ruth, and the other Bible characters who
lived and loved in the days of the Scriptures.

All these belong to the Palestine perennial, and to that
Palestine belong the talks of this book. They are based
on the notes dictated to my stenographer or written by
me in the midst of the scenes they describe. I give them
as they came hot from the pen, changing only a line here
and there to accord with the changing conditions.

We start in the Land of Goshen which Joseph gave to
his father and brothers after he was sold to the Ishmael-
ites and carried down into Egypt, and enter Palestine at
Jaffa, the city of Jonah and Simon the Tanner. We cross
the plains of Sharon by rail, and travel back and forth
over the Holy Land from Beersheba to Dan. Jerusalem
and Bethlehem, Jericho and the Jordan, Shechem and
Nazareth are among the places where we linger longest,
and it is on the opposite side of the Sea of Galilee from
Capernaum that we take the train for Damascus. In that
city we go to the wall over which Saint Paul was let
down in a basket, shop in the Street called Straight, and
then, crossing the Abana, one of the rivers that Naaman
the Leper would have preferred to the Jordan, ascend the

JUST A WORD BEFORE WE START

mountains of Lebanon to the ruins of Baalbek. We
next climb down to the Mediterranean Sea at Beirut and
sail north to Smyrna to pay our respects to the ruined
shrine of the Goddess Diana on the site of old Ephesus.
After a peep at Asia Minor we take a ship for home.
Throughout the journey, the old is ever tramping on the
heels of the new, and the Palestine of the future is seen
through the veil of the Palestine of the past.

CHAPTER II

IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN

COME with me this bright Sunday morning for
a look at the old Land of Goshen, where the
Israelites settled when they first came into
Egypt. I am writing this at Zagazig not far
from the road down which Joseph was carried by the
caravan of Ishmaelites, or Bedouins, who had bought
him of his brothers and were on their way to sell him to
Potiphar. It was over that same road that the brothers
of Joseph came to buy corn in the seven years of famine.
It was probably near Zagazig that Joseph met them and
had the cup hidden in Benjamin's sack, and from Zag-
azig he came out in his chariot to meet his old father
Jacob when by his advice the patriarch came into
Egypt to live. Through him Goshen became a land of
the Israelites, where they remained and prospered until
he died, and those "who knew not Joseph" reigned in
his stead.

The Land of Goshen is to-day one of the finest parts
of the Nile Valley. My whole way from Cairo to Zag-
azig was through rich crops of cotton, sugar cane, and
clover. There was green everywhere, and I could ride
from here twenty miles more to the eastward before
reaching the desert. The railroad from Cairo to the
Suez Canal goes directly through Goshen. It strikes
the canal at Ismailia and then branches off north and

IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN

south, following the canal to Suez on the Red Sea, and to
Port Said on the Mediterranean. The first section is
over the road which led from Arabia to Memphis and
Heliopolis, cities long since replaced by Cairo, the me-
tropolis of Egypt. Zagazig, where I am stopping, is
one of the chief cities in the Delta. It is on the fresh-
water canal and the big irrigation ditch which leads to
the Nile. It is famous as a cotton port, and to-day
camels are coming into the town with bales on their backs,
and long trainloads are starting out for Alexandria and
Port Said, whence the cotton will be shipped off to
Europe and America.

The cotton scenes are features of the landscape un-
known in the days of Joseph and Jacob. At that time
the only clothes made in Egypt were of flax or wool.
Nobody knew of the cotton plant, and it was not until
the Middle Ages that Europe learned anything about it.
The first knowledge of it was brought by the traveller,
Sir John Mandeville, who said that the East Indians had
a shrub or bush, half vegetable and half animal. It was
called the vegetable lamb of Tartary. According to Sir
John, it was a plant which blossomed out at the top in
a living sheep that bent down and ate the grass growing
luxuriantly about it. The sheep had a thick coat of wool,
and from this came the cotton of India. Sir John wrote
that this plant beast had flesh, bones, and blood, and
that he had not only seen but eaten it. He closed with
the statement that all thought it wonderful but that
"God is marveyllous in his werkes."

This was about 1350 a.d., and many years before the
real nature of cotton became known in Egypt and cot-
ton seeds were planted. Now the crop is grown every-

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

where in Goshen, and thrives on almost every spot where
the feet of the Israelites trod. It covers the Delta and large
plantations have been set out even in old Nubia and the
Sudan. Cotton has supplanted grain as a money-
making crop and is worth far more than the grain that
Joseph had cornered when the years of famine began.

This Land of Goshen is a fine stock country. Camels,
buffaloes, and donkeys are staked out in the fields, and
flocks of sheep and goats feed there, watched by shep-
herds. There are also droves of camels grazing or lying
on the ground, chewing their cuds. All have their herds-
men. There are no fences in Egypt ; the fields are bounded
by imaginary lines. Sometimes the limits are marked by
water ditches, or little embankments made for irrigation.

It was as stock raisers that the Israelites came into
Egypt. Perhaps it was because they were a pastoral
people that Joseph had Pharaoh give them this Land of
Goshen, the eastern part of which is fringed by the
desert, with patches of scanty vegetation where the stock
could graze. The Bible says that Joseph advised his
brethren to say to Pharaoh, "Thy servants' trade hath
been about cattle, from our youth even until now, both
we and also our fathers"; for said he, "Every shepherd
is an abomination unto the Egyptians.''

To-day the land is well cultivated. Most of the fields
are kept like gardens, and I see half-naked men bending
over and digging the soil with great mattocks. Here
the farmers are ploughing, using the same one-handled
plough of the days of the Scriptures. Some of them have
donkeys and buffaloes hitched together, while now and
then one sees a plough dragged along by a cow and a camel.
There is much artificial irrigation. Sometimes the water

IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN

is lifted from level to level by men with buckets and
baskets to which ropes are slung. In other places it is
raised by the sakieh, a rude wheel turned by the cogs
of another wheel set at right angles to it. Clay jars are
fastened on this perpendicular wheel, and as this moves
through the water, the jars fill and empty themselves
into the troughs which lead to the little canals. The
motive power of the sakieh is a blindfolded camel, bul-
lock, or donkey, the animal going around like a horse in
an old-fashioned bark mill. Many of the fields are now
under water and the silvery streams shine out through
the emerald green of the crops.

When the Israelites first came to Goshen they prob-
ably lived in tents such as the Bedouins use to-day.
These are made of sheep's wool or goat's hair rudely
woven by hand. They are held up by ropes and poles
and are so low that the people must crawl into them.
We know that Abraham lived in a tent, and it is likely
that this was the case with Isaac and Jacob.

After coming to Goshen the Israelites probably copied
the houses of the Egyptians, building villages of mud
huts not unlike those I now see. These homes are rude
to an extreme. Many of them are less than twenty feet
square; they have flat roofs and are often so low that I
can see over them as I ride by on a camel. They have
no gardens or lawns. Facing the street, they are hud-
dled together without regard to beauty or comfort.

The roofs form the woodyards of the people below.
The only fuel they have is cornstalks, straw, or the
bushes from which the cotton has been picked. This
stuff is tied up in bundles and laid away on the roofs
until used.

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

There are but few trees to be seen. Now and then an
acacia grows along the roadway, and here and there are
clumps of date palms. There are occasional fruit gar-
dens, and I have seen many green orchards loaded with
oranges.

The roads are usually high above the rest of the coun-
try. They run along the canals, and consist of the dirt
banked up to hold back the waters. The side roads are
chiefly camel paths or foot paths, and one sees everywhere
the traffic moving along through the fields. Even on the
main roads there are few wagons. Most of the freight
is carried on donkeys and camels, which are the common
riding animals as well. Long-legged Egyptians in tur-
bans and gowns sit on the rumps of little donkeys, their
feet almost dragging; and fierce-looking Bedouins, their
headdresses tied on with ropes, bob up and down as they
ride on their camels, their heads bowing at every step of
the beasts. There are camels loaded with alfalfa, the
grass so covering them that they look like haystacks on
legs. There are donkeys laden with boxes and bags, and
mules and bullocks carrying freight of one kind or another.
Out in the fields one now and then sees a buffalo with a
a half-naked boy perched on it, and at nightfall the paths
are lined with men coming from the fields riding these
ungainly beasts and balancing their one-handled ploughs
in front of them.

It was in Goshen that the Israelites worked after they
were enslaved by the Egyptians. Here they built for
Pharaoh the treasure cities of Pithom and Rameses,
referred to in Exodus, from which they were sent out to
build other cities and towns in various parts of the
Nile Valley.

It was through rocky wastes such as this that Moses climbed to the
top of Mount Sinai and there received the Ten Commandments, and
there the Lord spoke with Moses "face to face, as a man speaketh unto
his friend"

The Land of Goshen still gets much of its water by the primitive wheel
turned by a blindfolded and resentful camel. This is the land which fed
Jacob and his family through the years of famine in Canaan

IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN

The archaeologists now excavating in Egypt tell me that
they frequently find bricks which were undoubtedly made
by them, and assert that the sun-dried bricks of to-day
are practically the same as those the children of Israel
moulded under the lash of their taskmasters.

This is true of the ruins of Bubastis, or the city of the
worship of the cat. The remains of this town, which was
situated within a stone's throw of the Zagazig of to-day,
are still to be seen. Its many buildings of mud brick
have crumbled almost to dust, but here and there the walls
are plainly visible. There are several hundred acres of
such ruins and I spent an hour or so to-day driving
through them.

Bubastis dates back to the times when the Pyramids
were young. It is supposed to have been built by the
Israelites, and was a great city until it was captured by
the Persians about 352 b. c. It was noted for its tem-
ples devoted to the cat-headed goddess. This lady had
the form of a lioness with the head of a cat and held in
one hand a lotus leaf as a sceptre. Herodotus tells of
her and of this city, saying that the temples were gor-
geous and that the stone road leading to them was one
thousand eight hundred feet long. He says that as
many as seven hundred thousand worshippers came to
the annual festivities. He relates that many of the
worshippers were women who often danced and acted "in
an unseemly manner. "

Driving out to the Bubastis, I found there a brickyard
in full swing. It was situated right on the edge of the
ruins, and the fellaheen of to-day were moulding the clay
used by the Israelites of the past into building material
for the present. As I looked at them my mind went

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

back to the days of the Pharaohs when Moses saw his
people toiling under the lash. These men and women I
watched were working under taskmasters or overseers.
Their half-clad bodies were burnt black by the tropical
sun and they looked not unlike slaves. Here they were
grinding the mud, there they were moulding it into bricks,
while farther over they were piling up those which had
been dried in the sun. The bricks were carried by young
girls, bossed by a burly negro with a stick in his hand.
At his direction the girls took the bricks on their heads
and carried them off on the trot. By bribing the negro
overseer I got a photograph of this scene, and I doubt
not my picture gives a fair idea of what went on in those
long-ago days, when Pharaoh drove the Israelites to
similar work.

Down through Goshen came Joseph and Mary fleeing
with the infant Saviour from the wrath of Herod, the
baby killer. This was then on the main highway from
Palestine into Egypt, and there is no doubt that they
stopped at Bubastis as they went on to Heliopolis. Not
far from the obelisk of Heliopolis there is a tree under
which Mary and Joseph and the young Jesus are said to
have rested. It is about five miles from Cairo and guide
books speak of it as one of the chief sights of Egypt. I
doubt the reliability of their statements. The tree may
be the descendant of one which stood there in the time
of Christ. It is an old sycamore gnarled with many
years and scarred with the names of tourists. It is on one
of the estates of the Khedive, and may be seen through
the bars of a fence which has been built around it to keep
off the relic hunters. During my visit there I tried to
climb the fence in order to get a photograph of it, but

IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN

some of the Khedive's servants came up and warned me
not to go in. The tree is surrounded by orange orchards
which are irrigated by sakiehs worked by water buffaloes
with blankets over their eyes.

As I went by I stopped at one of these sakiehs and the
men brought me some oranges from the Khedive's or-
chard, selling them at the rate of eight for ten cents.
They were wonderfully refreshing, and as I sat eating
them in the shade of the trees outside the fence I won-
dered whether Mary and Joseph had not perhaps thus
quenched their thirst in the same place nearly two thou-
sand years ago. Any resting place must have been wel-
come after the long ride through the country to the
edge of the great city of the sun.

There are other stories told of the stay of the Holy
Family in Egypt. One is that Joseph and Mary took
the infant Jesus out to the Pyramids, and from there
to the Sphinx. It is said that Mary laid Him in the
lap of the Sphinx, and that He slept for a night on the
paws of that mighty stone beast, half lion, half woman.

As I travel through Egypt, these stories seem more
vivid. I went down the other day to the banks of the
Nile where the little baby Moses is said to have lain in
the bulrushes in his boat of papyrus, and as I stood by
the obelisk at Heliopolis I was reminded of the Virgin
and the Saviour by a young girl who had a baby in her
arms. She must have been about the same age that
Mary was then, and the little one laughed and crowed as
she rested there under the tropical sun. At the same
time a score of other children ranging in age from two
to twelve years gathered around me and posed for my
camera in front of the obelisk. This great monolith was

1 1

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

undoubtedly standing when our Saviour was carried
through Egypt, and it was erected long before the baby
Moses was rescued from the waters of the Nile. The
great stone shaft seemed to tie the past and the present
together, and the children of to-day brought to my mind
those of the times of the Saviour.

The children were glad to pose for me, but as I snapped
the camera they rushed to the front with hands out-
stretched, begging for baksheesh. I was at a loss how to
fee so many, and finally gave twenty-five cents to my
coachman and left him, to fight it out with the babies.
The little ones mobbed him and he had to threaten them
with his carriage whip to keep them away. He finally
ended the trouble by giving each two children one half a
piastre, so that each received little more than one cent.
This made them quite happy.

As I was about to leave the obelisk a party of Amer-
ican tourists drove up. Among them was a smart twelve-
year-old boy who put his hands in his pockets and gazed
up at the stone as though he were ready to buy it. As
he did so I said to him:

"Hello, my little man, aren't you an American?"

"You bet I am/' he promptly replied. "I came from
Chicago in the state of Illinois. You are English, aren't
you?"

"No, I am an American, and my home is in Washing-
ton."

"Oh, yes," said the urchin. "I know all about that
place. The President lives there. Say, what is the name
of your ball team?"

That was the interesting thing to him. Out here under
the shadow of an obelisk four thousand years old, on the

IN THE LAND OF GOSHEN

spot where Joseph was married to Asenath; where Plato
philosophized and where Moses played; within plain
sight of the Pyramids and near enough almost to hear
the whisper of the Sphinx, he cared nothing for them.
He was a live boy, and he wanted live things. Therefore
the pitchers, catchers, and shortstops of the great Amer-
ican diamond were worth more to him than all the
stories of history and all the mummies of the museums.

CHAPTER III

THE CITY OF JONAH

I HAVE come up out of the land of Egypt, out of
the Israelitish "house of bondage/' and am to-day
on the edge of the Promised Land. I am at Jaffa,
the ancient Joppa, and the port for the Holy City.
When Jacob went down from the highlands of Samaria
to the Land of Goshen to meet Joseph, his journey took
several weeks. I made the trip in the opposite direction
by land and sea in less than a day.

I took the express train at Cairo and in four hours was
landed at Port Said, at the mouth of the Suez Canal,
where I got a steamer which brought me to Jaffa. The
whole way was through the lands of the Bible. We
struck the canal at Ismailia, about midway of the Isth-
mus of Suez, and thence rode northward along its banks
to Port Said.

Our steamer was crowded with pilgrims from Russia,
Egypt, and north Africa. There were many Americans,
French, and Germans travelling first class, and hundreds
of Syrians and Egyptians going steerage. The Russian
pilgrims were particularly interesting to me. Old men
and old women, with honest faces full of intelligence and
goodness, they held their religious services all over the
third-class portion of the ship, and I spent two hours
watching them as one after another they turned their
faces toward the Holy City and prayed, crossing them-

THE CITY OF JONAH

selves, and now and then getting down upon their knees
and bumping their heads against the deck in their wor-
ship. They were curiously dressed and many of them
wore long fur coats. Some had high fur hats and looked
as if they had just stepped out of one of Tolstoi's novels.
I was especially impressed with the strength of character
shown in their faces and with their magnificent physique.
If all of Russia's millions are of the same mould as those
who make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, they will some day
prove to the world that there is in them as good stuff as
ever made history or built up a civilization. The women,
with their strong, motherly faces made heroic by toil and
privation, were equally as striking as the men. They
were better looking than any other peasant women I
have ever seen, and the old saying of the Greeks came to
me as I looked at them: "If strong be the frame of the
mother, her sons shall make laws for the people."

As the ship approached the Holy Land the people
broke out into prayers, and in some cases into tears.
It is a religious pilgrimage for them and they think,
I doubt not, that in making it they are coming nearer to
heaven.

We had our first view of the shores of Palestine at
seven o'clock in the morning, after a night on the steamer.
We had been awakened at six with the cry that we were
nearing shore, but this was a ruse of the captain to get
breakfast out of the way before landing.

When I came up on deck nothing but the sea was in
sight. The sun was about two hours high and the sky,
a light blue with long streaks of fleecy white drawn like
a half-veil over it, curved down into the ocean at the
eastern horizon. As I looked I saw two lines of hazy

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

gray rise up out of the water, which rippled in sapphire
wavelets, caught by the sun. The first line was the
sandy beach that edges the rich plains of Sharon and the
second the wall of smoky gray which marks the hills of
Judea or the highlands of Palestine. As we came nearer,
these lines increased in size, until the first turned to daz-
zling white sand, out of which a little later the wooded
green strip marking the port of Jaffa came into view.
Nearer still we could see the shipping in the harbour,
and above and behind it the walls of this, one of the old-
est towns of the world.

We get some idea of the age of Jaffa from the story of
Jonah; for the Bible says that it was from here Jonah took
passage upon the ship from which he was thrown into
the sea into the mouth of the whale. He remained in the
whale's belly for three days, during which time he prayed
to the Lord, and the Lord spake to the whale, whereupon
he was vomited out upon dry land. Jonah was born
about eight hundred and fifty years before Christ. He
was a baby when, according to some authorities, Homer
was telling the story of the Iliad, and a hundred years
had yet to elapse before the founding of Rome. I am
not sure as to the exact spot where Jonah was taken
up by the sailors and thrown into the sea, but he is said
to have been buried not far from Jerusalem, and there
are dragomans who will show you his tomb. Ever since
Jonah's time sailors have been superstitious about having
preachers along, thinking that such passengers bring bad
luck to a ship.

The harbour of Jaffa is one of the worst in the world.
It is almost always rough and often so much so that it is
impossible to land. Upon our arrival there was such a

These brickmakers work under a taskmaster to-day just as the Israel-
ites toiled under the lash in this spot nearly four thousand years ago.
Here was built Bubastes, the ancient Egyptian city sacred to the worship
of the Cat

We go ashore in small boats at the city of Jonah, which rises almost
straight out of the water — but we see no whales

The best view of Jaffa is had from the roof of the House of Simon the
tanner where St. Peter had the vision which led to the preaching of Christ
to the Gentiles.

THE CITY OF JONAH

swell that the boats which took us ashore bobbed up and
down and the waves soaked our baggage.

As to Jon^h himself and his narrow escape, one of our
preachers on board has quoted a new version of why he
and the whale parted company :

" I threw up Jonah," said the whale,

Who'd lately come to town;
" I threw up Jonah,

For I could not keep a good man down."

In coming in I looked for whales. There were none in
sight, although I am told they are still to be seen in the
Mediterranean. In their place, however, were many
jellyfish of an opalescent blue. These fish were as big
as a football and of the shape of a mushroom. There
were hundreds of them floating about and bumping
against the hull of our ship as we lay at anchor.

Besides the story of Jonah there are many well-au-
thenticated facts about Jaffa which make it interesting.
It has always been the chief port for the Holy Land. It
was at one time owned by the Phoenicians, and later, when
Solomon built the temple, it was here that the timber
used in its construction was landed. Most of this was
cedar which came from the forests of Lebanon several
hundred miles up the coast. The logs were dragged down
the mountains and thrown into the sea at Tyre and
Sidon. They were there made into rafts and towed
down to Jaffa, whence they were carried up to Jerusalem
by camels and men.

Jaffa was an important port in the days of the Crusades,
and was fought for again and again. At one time its
walls were overthrown by Saladin, but a little later they

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

were rebuilt by Richard the Lion-hearted, the King of
England, who came here in a vain attempt to rescue the
Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the Turks. In ad-
dition to all this there is a tradition that Andromeda,
the beautiful daughter of the mythical king of this
country, was here chained to the rocks in order that she
might appease a huge sea serpent which threatened to
eat up the people. While so imperilled she was rescued
by Perseus, who killed the monster and married her.
In Pliny's time the historians state that the chains by
which Andromeda was bound to the rocks were still to be
seen, and that the bones of the sea serpent were carried
to Rome and placed upon exhibition there.

The Jaffa of to-day stands upon a bluff washed by the
Mediterranean Sea. The city is built right on the rocks,
with its yellow, white, and blue houses coming down to
the cliff edge. They rise up the steep sides of the bluff
which makes a wall cutting off the view of the country
behind. At the south of the bluff, as far as one can see,
are white sands. At the north are orange groves and then
more sand.

As we left the ship we came down a gangway and were
lifted into the boats. The third-class and steerage pas-
sengers were hung over the sides of the deck of the steamer
by the arms, and dropped down into the boats, twelve
or more feet below. Some of the women screamed as
they fell, making the rocks reecho with their cries as
though the beautiful Andromeda were still chained there.
We had no trouble with the customs, largely, I believe, be-
cause our dragomans had given the officers a liberal amount
of baksheesh. The examination was short, and within half
an hour after landing we were comfortably housed at

THE CITY OF JONAH

the Jerusalem Hotel. I mention this hotel because I
found it was kept by a character who was for a long time
our American consular agent. His name is Hardegg,
and he spices his food with a religious doctrine of his
own kind. The hotel rooms are not numbered i, 2, 3,
etc., but are named after the sons of Israel and the various
Old Testament prophets. Each of them contains a book
which Hardegg has compiled entitled " Bible Pills." It
is composed of texts from the Scriptures fitted to one's
daily life.

The city of Jaffa has normally about fifty thousand
inhabitants of whom the majority are Mohammedans
and the rest Christians and Jews. It has considerable
trade and is rapidly growing. The rich plains of Sharon
at the back furnish sesame, grain, and olive oil, while
the highlands of Judea and Samaria produce wool, just
as they did in the times of our Saviour. All about the
town are orange groves the fruit of which is shipped to
all parts of the Mediterranean. The oranges are almost
the shape of a lemon, but they are of a great size and
sweet as honey. They are packed up in boxes at the
groves and carried down to the harbour on the backs of
camels. I met the caravans of these huge beasts swaying
along as they made their way to the steamers.

I was taken through the native quarters of Jaffa by a
young Syrian named Moses. We went together through
streets so narrow and winding that carriages could not
enter them, and at times we were altogether shaded by
the houses, the roofs of which almost touched overhead.
We entered several of the dwellings. Each consisted of
but one room facing a court where the men, women, and
children were herded together.

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

The house of Simon the Tanner was destroyed some
centuries ago, but another house, which is probably of
the same character, stands on its site, and tanning is still
done in the neighbourhood. At least, it seems so by the
smells. This house is now used as a second-class inn. It
is a rocky structure, built high up over the sea, with steps
outside which lead to the second story and roof. I
climbed to the top, and there saw about the same view
as did St. Peter. In front of me the blue Mediterranean
stretched out toward the west. At the north were the
glistening sands reaching toward the ruins of Caesarea
and the foothills of Mount Carmel, while at the south were
the hills near which stood Askalon. It was here that St.
Peter had that wonderful dream, in which he beheld all
the beasts of the world let down from heaven in a sheet,
in order that he might eat of them. You remember that
he refused, saying: "Not so, Lord! for I have never eaten
anything that is common or unclean."

And then came a voice which said: "What God hath
cleansed that call not thou common."

It was these words that first led to the preaching of the
Gospel to the Gentiles, bringing about the conversion of
Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and later on the preach-
ing of Christ to all the world.

As my guide refreshed my biblical memory with this
story, he told me of an American who had visited this
place with him last week. Said Moses:

"This American was a funny man, and it seemed to me
a foolish one. He was not satisfied with seeing this house,
but he asked me to show him the vision that St. Peter
saw, and demanded to know what had become of the sheet.
He said he did not think he ought to pay me unless I

Impenetrable hedges of giant cactus bushes intermingled with thorn
are often used as fences to separate land holdings. One seldom sees a
man carrying a water jar, for that is "women's work" in the Holy Land

THE CITY OF JONAH

could show him the vision, but I told him that I could
not do that unless he had St. Peter's heart, and I was
sure that he had not."

This American was probably facetious, but his ques-
tions are not unlike those of many of the tourists whose
ignorance and superstition surpass belief. Many of them
credit the most extravagant stories of every guide, and
go about kissing spots which they imagine to be hal-
lowed by their connection with the Bible, but of whose
authenticity no one knows.

There is one thing I must not forget about Jaffa,
and that is that here was born the modern sewing bee, I
might almost say the Woman's Missionary Society. You
have all heard of Dorcas, the queen of the needle, who
was raised from the dead by St. Peter. She was noted
for the garments she had made for the poor, and at her
funeral the people gathered round and showed specimens
of the needlework she had sewed and hemmed and
stitched for them.

Dorcas lived two or three miles outside Jaffa on a hill
which has a commanding view of the country for miles
around. It overlooks the sea and land, including thou-
sands of acres of orange groves and gardens containing
all kinds of fruits. The site of her house is now occupied
by a Russian Greek Catholic Church and a tomb has
been erected over her grave hard by.

I drove out to the place in a carriage, winding my way
in and out through orange groves and up the hill to the
church. Here I met a Russian priest, who was acquiring
merit by guarding the bones of the saint in whose honour
prayers are said daily. It was with him that I visited
the tomb. It is of stone and is roofed by a dome, the

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

whole being covered with plaster. There is a door at
the front, and by descending several steps one can see
the piece of mosaic which covers the spot where Dorcas
lies. There are catacombs to the right and left contain-
ing the bones of saints, and over the whole rise magnificent
trees.

CHAPTER IV

BY RAILWAY TO THE LAND OF JUDEA

TAKE a seat with me this morning in the railroad
car which is just about leaving the seaport of
Jaffa to go to Jerusalem. The distance by rail
is only fifty-four miles, but it will take us more
than four hours. Crossing the rich plains of Sharon,
the road winds its way up the hills of Judea until it
brings us to the Holy City, about twenty-five hundred
feet above the sea.

The cars are comfortable, but we have had to fight
with the tourists and pilgrims for our seats near the
windows. A German and a Greek on the opposite side of
the coach are still quarrelling for places, using language
not that of brotherly love. The German has just called
the Greek a swine, while the Greek has retaliated by
simply calling the German a dog. But now they are
quiet and we can enjoy the scenery as we go on.

Leaving Jaffa we ride for some miles through orchards.
There are orange groves loaded with blossoms and fruit.
There are orchards of olives, pomegranates, and figs,
and many gardens surrounded by cactus hedges twice as
high as our heads. Next we enter the rich plain where
the Philistines lived. The soil is brown and so fat that
you have only to tickle it with the plough and it laughs
with the harvest. You do not wonder that the Philis-
tines fought for this fertile land.

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

Here is a green field of wheat. The stalks stand as
thick as grass, and rise and fall with the winds from the
sea. There a native is ploughing with a bullock and don-
key harnessed together. The plough is the rude implement
of the Scriptures, and the dark-skinned farmer steadies
it with one hand, while he carries a goad in the other.
Farther on are camels dragging the ploughs. In places
we see flocks of fat sheep, herded by boys, and now and
then pass a village of flat, white-walled houses with thick
roofs of thatch on which the grass grows. Nearly every
house has a roof of sod about a foot deep, and as we near
the hills, the towns on their sides rise up in green terraces.

Here some shepherds in sheep-skin coats, with the wool
inside, are watching their flocks, and there, pulling up
bunches of grass for her cattle, is a maiden who makes us
think of Ruth gathering wheat in the harvest-fields of
Boaz. Here and there throughout the plains of Sharon
we see the watch-towers built for soldiers posted to en-
sure the Turkish Sultan's share of the farmers' crops.

The landscape here is far different from that of the
United States. There are no houses or barns standing
alone in the fields. There are no outbuildings of any
description, and no haystacks or strawstacks. The peo-
ple live in villages and go out to work in the fields. Tht
only fences are cactus hedges, but most of the holdings
are not fenced in at all.

The land is fertile clear to the mountains, a distance of
perhaps twenty miles. In the foothills there are patches
of green, while higher up fields are here and there cut
out of the rocks, which are built up to hold in the earth.
I have never seen a country more rocky. The rough
lands of the Blue Ridge are Nile farms compared to the

THE HOLY LAND

BY RAILWAY TO THE LAND OF JUDEA

hills through which our train climbs up to Jerusalem.
In many places there is nothing but rocks. The lime-
stone strata are piled stone upon stone, looking like
mighty monuments rising on the hills. In some places
mountains rise in steps forming pyramids of white lime-
stone, sparsely sprinkled with patches of grass and red
poppies.

As we begin to ascend the hills of Judea, we come into
the real land of the Israelites. Our railroad winds in and
out among little mountains and we can see that in the
past the whole country was terraced and that not a bit
of land went to waste. What is now the grazing ground
for sheep and cattle was once a garden.

Palestine reminds us of other parts of the world. The
rich fruit of the orange groves of Jaffa makes us think of
Florida. Were it not for the lack of fences and barns,
the plains of Sharon might be a slice out of Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania, or the rich fields of the Scioto
Valley in Ohio. These hills are very like Italy near
Genoa, or south France about Nice and Monte Carlo.
The terraces are planted with olive trees and we see
gray-green olive orchards everywhere.

As we rise the air becomes purer and fresher. We pass
the spot on which David is said to have killed Goliath,
and see in the distance the town of Mizpah, where the
Prophet anointed Saul king when the latter was out
hunting his father's asses. When we see an old bearded
and turbaned Syrian riding along on his donkey, we won-
der if he may not be a second Balaam, and we almost
expect his donkey to open its mouth and speak to its
master.

But let me tell you something about the railroad up to

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

Jerusalem. The track is narrow gauge, and the coaches
are much like street cars, with little racks for baggage along
each side under the roof. Each carriage is divided into
compartments the sides of which are walled with windows.
The road has no tunnels, and it winds its way in and out
as it climbs the hills. There are five stations between
Jaffa and Jerusalem.

The total cost of the railroad was two million dollars,
or a little less than forty thousand dollars per mile. The
idea of the road was originated by an American, a civil
engineer named Zimpel, who came to Palestine as a ped-
lar of a patent medicine which he called "Sunlight
Pills. " He brought the scheme before the Sultan at
Constantinople, but failed to get the concession to build
it. After his death the matter was taken up by the
French, who put the line through.

This was the first railroad built in Syria, and it is the
father of a system which is now opening up a great part
of the country. One section is the road building from
Damascus toward Mecca, and connected with it are
others which will eventually join the Holy Land to the
valley of the Euphrates, as well as to Asia Minor and
Turkey. The rates for both passengers and freight are
much higher than in the United States.

As it goes up the mountains, the railway twists this
way and that. It crawls along the sides of the hills with
horseshoe curves here and there. The whole journey is
over historic ground. We cross the plains where Samson
fought with the Philistines, slaying a thousand of them
with the jawbone of an ass. We see the place where he
tied the firebrands to the tails of three hundred foxes
and let them loose to burn up the harvest. A little far-

BY RAILWAY TO THE LAND OF JUDEA

ther on we enter the valley of Sorek, where the wicked
Delilah cut off the hair of the strong man as he lay asleep
in her lap, and away up on the side of the hill we can see
the town of Zorah, where Samson was born. At the
station of Deir Aban, where Samuel raised his Ebenezer,
a crowd of children comes to the trains with bouquets
of wild flowers. The boys whine for baksheesh. We
wonder whether there may not be an infant Samson
among them.

It was in Zorah that Samson was buried, and the guides
will show you his tomb. Farther along the road we pass
through a great gorge in the cliffs, on the north side of
which, near the top, is a cave, where Samson lived, and
I verily believe if we should offer the guides sufficient
reward they would find us his bones or some pieces of
brass from the gates of the city of Gaza, which, you re-
member, he carried away on his shoulders.

In our ride up to Jerusalem we go by the ancient city
of Gezer. It is marked by a mound which has several
buildings upon it, including the dome of a Mohammedan
mosque. The ground about it has been dug over and
over, and the ruins discovered have excited the religious
and scientific world.

The excavations made by the Palestine Exploration
Fund show it to be one of the oldest of cities. The
scientists have gone down into the earth at this point,
finding one city built upon the ruins of another, down
to the seventh city, which seems to have been oc-
cupied by the cave dwellers of the Flint or Stone Age,
a period before recorded history began. In these cave
dwellings pottery and flint instruments were discovered.
A burial place of that ancient race was opened up and

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

remains were found which show that the cave dwellers
practised cremation. . In one of the six other cities, higher
up, bronze tools were discovered, and higher still the relics
of an ancient Egyptian civilization. In one of the caves
were found large jars containing the skeletons of infants
that had been sacrificed to some pagan idol, probably
during the Canaanite period. In another was a cistern,
the mouth of which was guarded by the skulls of two
young girls, and inside which were fourteen skeletons,
one that of a girl of sixteen who had been sawn asunder.

The King of Gezer was defeated by Joshua, and later
the city was captured by a king of Egypt, who was one
of Solomon's three hundred-odd fathers-in-law. The
story is that Pharaoh gave Gezer to Solomon as a dowry
with his daughter, and that Solomon rebuilt the city.
At the time of the Crusades Richard Cceur de Lion and
Saladin fought over it, and it was an important fortress
at the time of the Maccabees.

The archaeologists of the Palestine Exploration Fund
have discovered bronze pots, ivory tablets, statues, and
jewels and other treasures of a half-dozen different pe-
riods of history. In one of the cities a complete olive press
made of stone was unearthed, and in another an Egyptian
statuette about four thousand years old. The figure
was that of a man with a beard and a wig. Bronze
tweezers were found as well as many articles of Greek
and Roman times. One of the most interesting discov-
eries was a reservoir with a capacity of four million
gallons. Another was a place supposed to belong to one
of the Maccabees.

The Palestine Exploration Fund is not a religious body,
but rather a scientific and historical society. It has spent

The children are what we like best in the Holy Land, even though they
have generally learned from their elders the habit of begging for backsheesh

The ass of this sheeted Balaam opens his mouth but only a bray
comes forth. The roads are so fearful that many places may not be
reached by wheeled vehicles and the sure-footed donkey is usually the
best mount

BY RAILWAY TO THE LAND OF JUDEA

about fourteen thousand dollars a year on such work,
most of the sums being collected in amounts of five dol-
lars or less from English and Americans all over the
world. The Fund has made great discoveries in Je-
rusalem. It has surveyed and mapped a great part of
Palestine and has added many Bible sites to those al-
ready known.

CHAPTER V

FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA

THE size of Palestine is surprising to every visitor.
You know it is small, but you cannot appreciate
how small it is until you have travelled over it.
Then you see why it has been called "the least
of all lands." The whole country does not average more
than fifty miles wide, and it is only about a hundred and
forty miles long. You could lose it in many of the counties
of Texas, and on some of its mountains you can look from
one side of it to the other. Standing on the Mount of
Olives, just outside of Jerusalem, I could see the Mediter-
ranean on the west and on the east the Dead Sea and the
River Jordan. From Dan to Beersheba is not as far
as from New York to Washington, and the "stormy
banks" of the Jordan inclose a stream across many parts
of which you can easily throw a stone, and which though
it winds in and out like a corkscrew, is not over two hun-
dred miles long. The Mount of Olives, upon which Jesus
was taken by the Devil, is described as "an exceeding
high mountain," but it is only about twenty-seven hundred
feet high and would be no more than a hill in the Rockies.
"All the kingdoms of the world" which Satan showed
him consisted of a few half-barren hills and some fertile
plains, which together would not make more than a good-
sized Western county. With an aeroplane we could fly
across the whole of Palestine in less than an hour. In-

FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA

eluding Syria, which takes in the mountains of Lebanon
and much other country in addition to Palestine proper, it
is not as long as from New York to Pittsburgh. It begins
at the boundary of the French Mandate of Syria on the
north, and extends from there southward along the line of
the Mediterranean Sea until it is lost in the sands of
Arabia.

Though it has bulked so large in history and religion,
the Holy Land itself is not as big as Rhode Island, while
all Palestine is only about the size of Vermont. If you
could take it up and stretch it over the United States it
would hardly make a patch of court plaster on Uncle
Sam's body. Dropped down upon New England, with
one end at Boston, the other would be at Mount Wash-
ington, and most of the country would not be wider than
from Boston to Springfield. If spread out upon northern
Illinois the whole might be included inside a line drawn
from Chicago to Aurora and thence to Decatur and
back to Chicago.

The Bible has called this little territory a land of milk
and honey. The expression must have been used by
contrast to the dreary sand of the Sinai desert, through
which the Israelites travelled on their way hither. As
I know from former travels, it is more rocky than any
part of the Alleghanies; and the Blue Ridge of Virginia,
which is covered with stones, is the Mississippi Valley
compared with it. The country has a backbone of moun-
tains comprising the hills of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee,
with a low coastal plain, where the Philistines lived, extend-
ing to the Mediterranean Sea. On the other side of the
backbone is the great ditch in which lie the Sea of Tiberias,
or Galilee, and the Dead Sea, with the winding Jordan

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

running from one to the other. This ditch is below the
level of the sea and parts of it have the hottest and most
oppressive climate on earth. On the opposite side of the
Jordan toward the east is a country much richer than
Palestine. It is composed of highlands from two thousand
to three thousand feet above sea level, giving excellent
pasture and, in the north, large crops of wheat. This
was the Bashan, Gilead, and Moab of the Bible, and it
is now inhabited chiefly by Mohammedan Bedouins, who
live in tents, driving their camels, cattle, and sheep from
place to place. In the past it was thickly populated,
and archaeologists have uncovered the ruined cities of
the people who used to live there. Palestine, on the other
hand, could never have had a very large population, and
the "hosts" spoken of in the Scriptures would dwindle
by comparison with the numbers of people we are used
to nowadays.

The trip from Jaffa to Jerusalem gives us a fair idea
of the character of the country. The coastal plain is
typical of the richest part. Its soil is a chocolate brown,
the grass is as green as that of Egypt, and there are great
orchards of olives and fruits of all kinds. The roads are
lined with rich red poppies and there are wild flowers on
all sides.

Climbing the hills is like jumping from the Nile Valley
into the desert. There is nothing but rocks with a sparse
vegetation scattered here and there through them. The
limestone crops out everywhere, and in places heaps of
stones have been thrown up to make little fields. Such
fields are fenced with stone walls. There are also corrals
for the sheep made in this way.

Palestine has no woods. There are no groves or bushes.

Fuel is so scarce in this land of no woods that even roots and twigs
bring good prices. Two years of poor olive crops often drive the peasants
to cutting down their precious olive trees and selling them

The Pool of Hezekiah, opened by an ancient Hebrew king in the city
of Jerusalem, is fed by a fountain in the hills. Not until the British came
did the city have an adequate water-supply. One old Arab said, " For four
hundred years, the Turks did not give us so much as a cup of cold water"

FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA

Almost the only trees are fruit trees, with now and
then a funereal cypress in a garden. Our consul tells
me that the country has two groves which the people
call forests. One of these contains forty scrub oaks and
the other is not quite so large. He says that a few
years ago there was some brush on the hillside, but
that the people have even dug up the roots and sold
them for fuel.

Indeed, fuel is one of the most costly things in this
country. It is so expensive that it is seldom used except
for cooking, and that notwithstanding the fact that the
climate is cold. Wood is so valuable that the older olive
trees are being cut down, and it is feared that the olive
orchards will gradually disappear. These old trees are
often of considerable thickness, but they are only twenty
or thirty feet tall so that one will supply but a small
amount of firewood. The olive tree is as hard as the
apple and far more knotted and gnarly. Its wood is
heavy and is sold by the ton. It is brought in on the
backs of donkeys and camels and every stick has to pay a
tax before it gets inside the gates of Jerusalem.

A common fuel is charcoal, made mostly of olive wood.
It is made chiefly at Hebron, about twenty-three miles
south of Jerusalem, near the cave where Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob are buried and where tradition says Adam died.
Hebron, which is about five hundred feet higher than
Jerusalem, has big orchards of olives, almonds, and ap-
ples, the brush and the dead wood of which are used to
make charcoal.

The use of coal is almost out of the question on account
of the high rates over the railroads. The same charge is
made for carrying coal as for carrying silk. Such coal

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

as comes here is in the shape of briquettes and sells for
high prices.

Another lack from which the Holy Land suffers is water.
The rainfall in the southern sections is something like six
inches and upward a year, the amount gradually increas-
ing as one goes northward toward Galilee. The country
has always been one of pools and wells, and every house
in Jerusalem has its roofs so made that they drain into
cisterns placed in the courts. In dry seasons water is
sold, and the man who has a spare cistern gets a big price
for his surplus.

Nearly all the wells of the olden times remain, and are
pointed out by the dragomans. One can drink from the
well where Christ met the Samaritan, woman, and from
many cisterns scattered over the country. Most of them
are shaped like great pears.

When the pools of Solomon were connected with Je-
rusalem it was thought that they would supply the city
with water. These pools are on the highlands between
Bethlehem and Hebron. They are cut out of the solid
rock, and it is said that they originally held about forty
million gallons. There are three of them, ranging in
height from three hundred and eighty to five hundred
and eighty feet. They lie in terraces one above the other,
being of varying widths. The depths are from twenty-
five to fifty feet. If they were in good condition they
could supply a vast deal of water, but as it is, the aque-
ducts which Solomon built to Jerusalem have gone to ruin,
and there is now only a four-inch iron pipe running from
them to the city. The pipe comes in near the Dung Gate
and goes from there to the temple platform. I stumbled
over it the other day. I am told that the water is used

FROM DAN TO BEERSHEBA

almost altogether for the Mosque of Omar, although it is
connected with the fountains of the city, which are only
occasionally allowed to play.

In addition to these pools there are many others in and
about Jerusalem. The Pool of Hezekiah is in the heart
of the city, not far from the Church of the Holy Sepul-
chre; and the Pool of Siloam, where Our Lord sent the
blind man to wash, is in the valley of Jehoshaphat, out-
side the walls.

Just now the Holy Land is suffering from drought and
the people are praying for rain. We have had one or
two showers in the last few days, but more is needed or
the crops will fail. Most of the inhabitants of Jerusalem
are great believers in prayer, and Mohammedans, Chris-
tians, and Jews are all holding services at which they
ask the Lord to send water.

We had a slight rain yesterday and more is expected.
The people evidently think their prayers will be answered.
As I walked through David Street I heard two Moham-
medans talking. Their language was Arabic, but my
dragomans told me that one had just said to the other:

"How good God is, after all. We have prayed for the
rain and, lo, it has come."

When the first shower began to fall I was standing
in a doorway. A little girl, perhaps eight years old,
passed by with a platter of bread on her head. The rain
was pouring down upon it and she was wet to the skin,
but nevertheless she was singing. I asked my guide the
words of her song. He replied: "She cries: 'Praise
God for the rain! Praise God for the rain! Praise God
for the rain!'"

CHAPTER VI

JERUSALEM IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

I WRITE these words on the housetop of a bishop's
residence on the summit of Mount Zion and in the
centre of the Holy City. My typewriter stands within
thirty feet of the great square Tower of David the
base of which was undoubtedly built before the time of
Christ. At my left, surrounded by the yellow stone walls
of the houses, is the dark green pool Hezekiah made to sup-
ply Jerusalem with water in case of siege, and beyond it,
out of the jumble of buildings, shines the huge bronze dome
erected over the spot where Christ was crucified. Not
half a mile away on a plateau covering thirty-five acres
is a big octagonal tower with a bulbous bronze dome.
That is the Mosque of Omar which rises on the very site
of Solomon's temple. At its left is the church built over
the Roman mosaic floor of the house of Pontius Pilate.

Jerusalem lies in a nest of mountains. It is built on
an irregular plateau with valleys all about it and steep
hills rising straight up from these to the city and to the
higher hills on the opposite sides. The site of the city
runs over height and hollow, and was probably chosen
for the capital of Judea on account of the great gorges
about it, by which it could be the more easily defended
against attack.

Around the edge of the plateau is a wall about thirty
feet high enclosing the Jerusalem of to-day. The wall

Jerusalem lies in a nest of hills which seem flattened out when viewed
from an airplane. It is on a plateau twenty-five hundred feet above
sea-level, and the city is divided into four quarters, each on its own hill

The walls of the Holy City were breached at the Jaffa gate to provide
a special entrance for the German Kaiser when he visited Jerusalem.
He was arrayed as a crusading knight and rode a prancing snow-white
steed

JERUSALEM IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

runs along the rims of the valleys, climbing up hill
and down, making its way around the Holy City until
it comes again to the Jaffa Gate which is just below
me.

The Holy City now covers twice as much space as it
did when I was first here a good many years ago. It
has doubled in size and has some sixty thousand people.
At that time most of the inhabitants were crowded to-
gether inside the walls. They are crowded still, but to
the north, south, and west large Jewish settlements have
sprung up, and among and beyond them have been built
great hospices, hospitals, convents, cathedrals, and hotels,
so that the population outside the walls almost equals
that within. The new buildings have extended to the
Mount of Olives, and are working their way toward the
east along the road to Jaffa.

Seated here upon the site of King David's palace, I see
the whole city spread out beneath me. What a curious
place it is! In my tours of the world I have found no
spot so full of strange sights and picturesque characters,
so different in most particulars from every other town of
the world. Aside from its wonderfully interesting his-
torical associations, Jerusalem has a character of its own.
It looks more like a great honeycomb than a city. The
houses are piled one above the other in all sorts of ir-
regularities. If you would take a half-section of land and
scatter over it gigantic packing boxes just as you find
them in a down-town alley, you might get some idea of
Jerusalem as it looks to me from Mount Zion. These
houses have no chimneys and their stone roofs are almost
flat. Many of the roofs have in the centre little domes that
remind me of beehives. If the town were on a level these

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

domes would look like the haycocks in a meadow at
harvest time.

The wood used in the construction of Jerusalem would
not last an American family a winter. Yellow limestone
is the sole building material. The roofs, walls, and floors
of these thousands of houses are of this cold, yellowish-
white rock. Even in the Bishop's mansion, which is one
of the finest in the city, I step out of my bed on to a stone
floor and walk to my breakfast down stone steps and
through stone halls.

Now look at the streets with me. They are narrow and
winding and some are built over, so that going through
them is like passing through tunnels or subterranean
caves.

Indeed, Jerusalem is a city of cave dwellers. Many
of the stores and houses are little more than holes in
the rocks. I visited a native inn yesterday right in the
heart of the town. It consisted of a series of vaulted
chambers which looked much like caves. In one cave
were four donkeys, two camels, and a party of Bedouins.
In another were a dozen Jews from Samaria, and in a
third were some men and camels who had just come
from beyond the Jordan. The only sign of modern
times was an English lamp burning American kerosene
oil. Through my guide I chatted with the keeper of the
stable, or inn, as it was called, and he told me that his
charge for feeding and washing a donkey or a horse was
five cents a day.

Jerusalem of to-day is founded upon the remains of
the Jerusalems of the past, and the excavations have un-
earthed houses and temples far below the streets of the
present. The original floor and court of the house in

JERUSALEM IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

which Pontius Pilate examined the Christ is much lower
than the level of the present city, and mosaics and mar-
bles, including carvings of various kinds and Greek and
Roman capitals and columns, are frequently uncovered
in digging the foundations for new buildings.

There are many caves outside of Jerusalem and people
live in some of them. The tombs of the kings on the edge
of the city have been cut out of the solid rock, and some
of them are so large that a city house could be dropped
into one and not touch the walls. An excavation of the
Pool of Bethesda has shown that it is eighty feet deep
and covers nearly an acre. Right under the temple
platform are enormous caverns known as Solomon's
Stables, and near by there is a space honeycombed with
vast tanks which will hold millions of gallons of water.

All of the water for the Holy City comes down in rain,
and the trees and gardens of the town can be numbered
on your fingers. The surrounding hills are almost as
barren as some of the rocky slopes of New England, and
the only foliage visible is the dark silvery green of the
orchards on the Mount of Olives and along the hills be-
tween Jaffa and Bethlehem. The only grass to be seen
is an acre or so of common inside the walls of the temple
plateau, and here and there a house top, which by age has
gathered a coating of dirt from the dust of the city, and
on which the green grass has sprouted. Occasionally I
see ruined arches, too dangerous to be inhabited by the
bees of this human hive, on which grow moss and grass.
There is one green bushy tree at the base of Mount Cal-
vary, and a solitary palm beside the business street
named after King David looks out over the city. Jeru-
salem is not an attractive looking town, and the glare

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

from its cream-white buildings lying under the rays of
this tropical sun makes my eyes sore.

Jerusalem is the Mecca of millions of souls. It is to
hundreds of millions the holiest spot on the face of the
earth. Everywhere buildings have gone up both to ac-
commodate pilgrims and to mark the most sacred places.
On the very top of the Mount of Olives a great Russian
church lifts its swelling domes toward heaven. In the
Garden of Gethsemane, where Christ spent that night of
"agony and bloody sweat" before His crucifixion, there
is a resting place for pilgrims. The Roman Catholics
have fifteen hundred brothers and sisters in their mon-
asteries and convents, while the old Armenian church
can accommodate a hundred and eighty monks and two
thousand pilgrims. There are Greek Christians here by
the thousands and Egyptian Copts by the hundreds.
There are Abyssinian priests with faces as black as your
hat. Indeed, among the worshippers who gather around
the Holy Sepulchre you may see every costume and hear
every language. Furthermore, the Jews are fast coming
back into Palestine, and Jerusalem is again becoming a
city of the Children of Israel.

But let us come down from our housetop and take a
walk through the crowd. We are at the Jaffa Gate, which
leads to the railroad station a half mile from the walls.
It is also at the end of the roads to Bethlehem, Hebron,
and Jaffa, and is the main business gate of the city. It
is always thronged, and the people who go in and out
come from all parts of the world. They are of all colours —
blacks, browns, yellows, and whites — and number a dozen
different nationalities from the near-by parts of Asia,
Europe, and Africa. Here comes a donkey led by a fat,

JERUSALEM IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

bare-footed Turk in a yellow gown and red turban. His
beast is loaded with wood which he is bringing into
the city for sale. The wood is the roots of olive trees
and his donkey load is worth twenty-five cents. He is
stopped by the customs officer at the gate and pays a
tax of three cents. Behind him comes a porter with a
bag half as big as a hogshead fastened to the small of his
back. Inside the bag is a basket filled with the flat
cakes which form the bread of the city.

Now turn to the right and look at that Syrian Bedouin
riding a gray Arabian pony. There is a gun on his
back and he wears a black-and-white woollen blanket.
His head is covered with a great yellow handkerchief
bound about the crown with two strands of hair cord the
size of your finger. Sitting as straight as a ramrod, he
looks with fierce black eyes at the crowd about him. Be-
hind him come three camels laden with the oranges of
Jaffa. Each beast has a cartload of the great yellow balls
in the two crates which hang over his back, and he
grumbles and whines as his barefooted driver drags him
along by a string tied to his nose.

As we look we see the figures of the Old and New Tes-
taments crowding around us. There are peasants who
might have been among the disciples, and gray-bearded
men who would pass for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We
see boys with coats of many colours, which remind us
of Joseph, and shepherds driving sheep into market who
probably came from the very plains near Bethlehem
where similar shepherds were watching their flocks when
the heavenly host appeared.

Let us take a seat with those Syrians on the porch of
the coffee house outside the gate and make further

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

sketches of those who go in. Here come two figures
dressed all in white. They look like walking bed ticks
bound around at the middle, or, better, like the ghosts of
a sheet and pillow case party. They are Mohammedan
women, and it is against their ironclad custom for them
to go out unveiled. They have wrapped their bodies in
sheets the folds of which they hold close together over
their faces, leaving only a crack by which they may see
to pick their way through the crowd.

Behind them is a girl with bare face. She wears a
round cap which extends a foot above her rosy brown
forehead, and she has a headdress of white cotton. Her
gown is a gray chemise which falls almost to her feet,
and which has a wide hem of red and blue silk embroid-
ery. She is a Bethlehem maiden wearing the shawl
made with her own hands for her wedding. Such shawls
are much prized by tourists, and the best of them bring
twenty-five dollars apiece in the stores.

But here are some women in long coats and high
boots. They have calico gowns under their coats which
reach half way down the calf. Their heads are covered
with handkerchiefs, and their faces are bronzed by the
sun. Each has a staff in her hand and a bag on her
back, and is marching along at the rate of four miles an
hour. They are dusty and dirty, and look weary and
worn. Those are peasant women, pilgrims from Russia,
who are making their way from shrine to shrine. They
have tramped this morning out to Bethlehem, and to-
morrow will probably be on their way to the Jordan.

But let us leave here and take a walk about the walls
of the Holy City.

CHAPTER VII

AROUND THE WALLS OF THE HOLY CITY

I HAVE tramped about the walls of Jerusalem on
foot and have ridden round them upon donkeys.
Let us make the trip on foot.
Some of the walls which still stand were laid up
by Solomon, others were erected by Herod the Great,
who built David's Tower, and others by Agrippa only a
few years after Christ's death.

We walk across the road leading to Bethlehem, down
which the Wise Men of the East rode on their way to the
birthplace of the Saviour, and picking our steps through
a caravan of camels lying there, climb up the slope of
Mount Zion. There is a moat at the foot of the tower
which is one hundred feet wide and thirty feet deep, and
the wall rises perhaps one hundred feet above this. There
are olive trees between the road and the walls, and as
we go we see ragged donkeys feeding among them.

Now we have passed the moat and come close to the
wall. Though its lower portions are about two thousand
years old, the stones are as firm as when they were laid.

Going onward, we pass tower after tower running fif-
teen or twenty feet out from the wall and rising five or
six feet above it. These towers were used for the archers
and watchmen stationed there on the lookout for the
enemy.

A little beyond David's Tower, almost against the

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

walls, is the great church built by the Germans. Its
site commands a view over the whole of Jerusalem and
was sold to the Kaiser of Germany by the Sultan of
Turkey. A part of the churchyard is the American
cemetery, which was sold by our consul. Its sale caused
great excitement among the Americans at Jerusalem, and
the American colony here protested against the removal
of their dead, which they said was done after dark.
The bodies were taken up and carried to the English
cemetery.

Continuing our walk we hug the wall looking down
into the Valley of Hinnom until we come to Zion Gate,
and a little farther on to the Dung Gate. Below this in
the Valley of Jehoshaphat lies the Pool of Siloam. At
the Zion Gate a group of lepers are begging. They are
ragged and filthy and hold out the stumps of their hands
asking for alms. On the inside of this gate stood the
house of Caiaphas, where Peter three times denied that
he was one of the disciples of Christ, before the cock
crowed.

As we go on we see chickens scratching in the earth
outside the wall, and as we look at the gardens on the
slopes of Kedron or Jehoshaphat observe that the land is
still rich. There are cows away down in the valley and
the bees are buzzing on the cacti and wild flowers on the
slopes. In some favoured spots the Holy Land is still
one of milk and honey. The villages near Jerusalem
have dairies which supply excellent butter, and the
honey, which is largely made of orange blossoms, is de-
licious. It is served every day at all the hotels, usually
in the liquid form rather than in the comb.

The slopes of the Valley of Jehoshaphat are now spotted

The houses of Jerusalem are of limestone with flat roofs constructed to
catch the rain water. The better houses have little domes on them

The Mount of Olives is climbed by walled and winding roads and
marked with many churches and chapels. Here Jesus often walked with
His disciples, and here He brooded over the city that rejected Him

The Holy City is a beautifully framed picture when viewed from a
bell tower on the Mount of Olives. Across the foreground stretches the
wall of the inclosure of the Mosque of Omar

AROUND THE WALLS OF THE HOLY CITY

with red. Thousands of poppies and anemones grow
upon the ridges between the gardens, and the peasants
are working the crops. They use plenty of fertilizer and,
strange to say, most of that which comes from the city
is taken out through the Dung Gate. It may be from
this that it got its name. It is a great square hole in
the wall just large enough for men and beasts to pass in
and out. It is not far from the temple platform and
within a stone's throw of the Jews' wailing place.

The southeastern corner of the walls of Jerusalem, and,
indeed, a large portion of the eastern walls, are a part of
the plateau upon which Solomon's Temple once stood.
In almost the middle of the eastern side of the temple
is what is known as the Golden Gate, through which
Christ is said to have made his entry into Jerusalem on
Palm Sunday. It has been walled up and the Mohamme-
dans say that it will not be opened until the Judgment
Day. A little farther on, at the corner of the temple,
is St. Stephen's Gate, which some say was the place
where St. Stephen was stoned. Another legend is that
the place of the stoning was near the Grotto of Jeremiah,
in Solomon's quarries, farther along around the walls.
The tradition is that Stephen was here brought to the
brow of the hill and thrown over a precipice. His hands
were tied, and after he had fallen heavy blocks of stone
were rolled down upon him from the brow of the hill.

The walls near the Temple are among the first that
were built. They are in fine condition to-day, parts of
them having been recently repaired. The stones are of
bright yellow limestone laid in white mortar. Those at
the bottom, which were laid up by Solomon, are of
enormous size, one being about fifty feet long and about

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

fifteen feet high and evidently cut from the bed rock
upon which the wall stands.

Right at the Temple the walls rise almost precipi-
tously from the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and I judge they
are one hundred feet high. They are in excellent condi-
tion throughout. The towers are almost perfect, and,
although the vegetation is growing in the cracks, most
of the masonry looks comparatively new.

A curious feature of the walls of Jerusalem is a stone
block as big around as a flour barrel which juts out from
that part above which stands the Mosque of Omar to a
distance of perhaps fifteen feet. This block or pillar
hangs right over the rocky Valley of Jehoshaphat. Ac-
cording to the belief of the Moslems, Mohammed will
sit astride this pillar at the Day of Judgment, and Christ
will have His seat on the Mount of Olives on the oppo-
site side of the valley. There will be a fine wire stretched
from the pillar across to the mountain, and upon this
wire all mankind must walk on its way to eternity. As
the people of the various religions go those who believe
in Mohammedanism will be upheld by the angels and
will reach safely the opposite side, whence they will
ascend into Heaven. The others will drop down into
the valley and perish.

There are cemeteries for both the Jews and the Mo-
hammedans outside the walls and not far from the
Mosque. The Mohammedan cemetery, which lies close to
the walls, is just opposite the Garden of Gethsemane and
includes the Place of the Skull where General Gordon
located the site of Calvary. This site is now surrounded
by a wall and fence, and Christians are not permitted
to enter it. Within it is the grotto where Jeremiah is

AROUND THE WALLS OF THE HOLY CITY

said to have written his Lamentations, and not far away,
near the Damascus Gate, are Solomon's quarries.

Our walk has brought us back once more to the Jaffa
Gate, where we join a pilgrim-throng entering the Holy
City.

CHAPTER VIII

"the tribes of god go thither"

Jerusalem a city is
Compactly built together;
Unto this place the tribes go up
The tribes of God go thither.

THE Holy Land is hallowed ground for three great
religions of the world. Jews, Moslems, Chris-
tians— all of them worshippers of only one god —
do reverence at its shrines. Jerusalem is the pil-
grimage city of the world. Sacred to the Christians, the
centre of Jewish religious devotion and national dreams,
it is also a second Mecca to the Mohammedans. The
Moslems locate the judgment seat upon the walls sur-
rounding the Mosque of Omar, which stands on the site
of Solomon's great temple. They make their pilgrimages
from all parts of the Mohammedan world to worship at
this mosque, and prostrate themselves before the sacred
rock within it as they do before the holy black stone of
Mecca. The prophet Mohammed himself said that Je-
rusalem was the holiest place in the world, and that one
prayer here was worth a thousand elsewhere.

The Christians of the Eastern churches are brought
up in much the same faith. They believe that the pray-
ers said within the walls of the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre at the foot of Mount Calvary have a wonder-
ful efficacy, and they gather in Jerusalem every Easter
by the tens of thousands. From the wilds of Abyssinia,

Lepers beg at the gates of Jerusalem, under the walls of great stone blocks
finely joined together

Down the hill from under the walls of Jerusalem goes the road to Jaffa and
the sea; to the right is the way to Bethlehem

"THE TRIBES OF GOD GO THITHER"

from the flat plains of Egypt, from the mountain fastnesses
of Greece, and from all over Russia, even to the borders
of Siberia, they come to drop their tears upon the tomb,
and to live over the terrible events of Passion Week.
They come from all parts of Asia Minor, and the Syrians
and the Armenians jostle the Copts and the Arabians on
their way to prayers.

In recent years Latin pilgrimages from western Europe
and America have been increasing. Bands of Christians
come from Italy, France, Spain, and the United States.
I was in Jerusalem when the first pilgrimage was made
by a body of Christians from America to the Holy City.
More than one hundred men and women from all sec-
tions of the United States, under the leadership of the
Bishop of Tennessee, took part in the Latin celebrations
in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Many of these pilgrims are extremely superstitious.
Most of them believe that every spot pointed out by the
monks is the actual locality of the event alleged to have
occurred there. They walk over the Holy Land with
staffs in their hands, and kneel down and kiss the places
where they believe Jesus trod. They even kiss the stones
of the streets of Jerusalem, forgetting or not knowing
that there have been three or four Jerusalems buried
below the site of the present one.

I have seen pilgrims crawling on their knees through
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Creeping into the
vestibule, they kiss the Stone of Unction upon which it
is claimed the body of Christ was anointed for burial.

Near the Stone of Unction is the spot on which it is
said the Virgin Mary stood while Christ was on the cross.
It also is worn away by kissing. Going on into the

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

great rotunda and turning to the right we reach a church
belonging to the Greeks at the front of which stands a
column as high as a chair and about as big. around as a
four-gallon crock. This is the centre of the world, and
is honoured as such. I saw Russian peasant girls kissing
it, and farther on observed them kissing holy place after
holy place until it. seemed to me that their lips must wear
out. Kisses are pressed upon these spots by thousands
of mouths every day, and if every lip leaves its mi-
crobes all the diseases of the world must be in the bacteria
here.

It is hard to estimate the value of the offerings the
pilgrims lay on these shrines. Those who come are of
all classes, and some bring the savings of years. The
poor lay their pennies in the hands of the priests and
drop them in the slot boxes which may be seen at al-
most every corner. There is much gold, and there are
treasures in precious stones. A life-sized image of the
Virgin Mary which I saw in the Greek church was cov-
ered with diamonds. The image was made of wax, and
was dressed in satins and silks. Its face was painted.
An oval pearl as big as the end of my thumb hung on the
forehead, while on the waxen fingers were a score or
more rings. Some of the rings were set with diamonds,
some with sapphires and rubies, and others with opals.
Opals in Palestine are looked upon as the sign of good
luck and not bad, as with us.

Most of the rings were costly and each was presented
to the Virgin as a love offering. On the silken lap of the
image lay a great golden heart as thick as my fist and
about six inches in width. It was studded with emeralds
and diamonds. The heart was a present from Franz

"THE TRIBES OF GOD GO THITHER"

Josef, Emperor of Austria, who made many costly
gifts to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In the grotto
of the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem is a similar
statue, even more gorgeously decorated, although some
of the jewels are said to be paste.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is a hotbed of su-
perstition. It is supposed to stand on the spot where
Christ was crucified. The Bible tells us that this was
outside Jerusalem, but the Church of the Sepulchre is
to-day far within the walls. This, however, is not a
proof that the location is incorrect, for the walls of Je-
rusalem have been thrown down and rebuilt again and
again, especially those on Mount Zion where the great
church stands. The hill where Christ was crucified was
made up of terraces of rock, and that is the nature of the
foundation of this church. The place was located by
St. Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, who
came here about three hundred years after Christ died,
and found what was said to be the true cross among the
rubbish on the side of the hill. She had the cross dug
out and carried to Constantinople, whence later on some
pieces of it were sent to Rome. One section as long as
your arm is said to be in Jerusalem, and there are so many
other pieces scattered over the world that I venture you
could build a house with them.

Shortly after this discovery, a church was erected on
the spot, and since then others have been built, de-
stroyed, and rebuilt, until we now have this great edifice
which covers, I should say, an area of several acres. It
is surmounted by a cross rising from a dome as big as that
of our National Capitol.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is not beautiful and its

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

position in the heart of Jerusalem, surrounded by bazaars,
convents, monasteries, and hotels, is by no means im-
posing. The front of it is covered with carvings, some
of which are from ancient temples, and over the doors
are bas-reliefs of scenes from the Bible. One of these
represents the raising of Lazarus, with the Saviour standing
at the front and Mary at His feet. At the command of
Christ, Lazarus is seen rising from the dead, while in the
background are spectators, some of whom are holding their
noses as an evidence, perhaps, of the corruption which
had begun to take place before Lazarus was brought to life.

Under the dome of the church lies the tomb of the
Saviour. It is enclosed in a chapel of an ivory-white mar-
ble, which stands in the centre of the rotunda. This
chapel is perhaps twenty feet high, twenty-six feet long,
and seventeen feet wide. Entering through a door so
low that you have to stoop to go in, you finally come
into a chamber six feet square and lighted only by can-
dles. This is the alleged tomb of the Saviour. Over it
is a marble slab covered with glass to keep the kisses of
the pilgrims from wearing the stone. There are always
priests here, and all who come in are sprinkled with holy
water. Every worshipper brings with him rosaries,
beads, and holy pictures which are laid upon the tomb
to be blessed. I saw one old woman totter in with a
half bushel bag full of rosaries on her back; a frowsy-
bearded man came with her, bearing all he could carry.
Spreading these out on the slab, they knelt, while the
priest sprinkled the beads and gave them his blessing.
Before leaving they dropped some coins into his hand.
They were Russians and will probably carry these ro-
saries back home to their friends.

The modern American oil can competes with the ancient water bottle.
The small boy scorns, like his father, to be seen carrying a little water at
a time, though he may proudly stagger along with a heavy skin holding
several gallons

These Russian pilgrims carry their food and cooking utensils with
them. Undismayed by poverty and difficulties they press on upheld by
their unquestioning faith

A donkey ambulance is provided in case a pilgrim falls ill on the march

"GOING UP TO JERUSALEM*'

"THE TRIBES OF GOD GO THITHER"

For years more Russians have made the pilgrimage
to the Holy Land than almost any other people on the
globe. Fifty or sixty thousand of them come here every
season. They are brought in by the shipload at Easter
time and during the whole spring bodies of pilgrims can
be seen going on foot from shrine to shrine throughout
Palestine.

Many of the pilgrims land at Haifa, the most northern
port of the country. From there they walk over the
mountains of Galilee, stopping at Nazareth and then
going on to Tiberius. They stop and pray at every holy
spot and often kiss the ground where they think Jesus
or the saints have trod. From the Sea of Galilee they
make their way back to Nazareth, and thence go across
the plain of Esdraelon and through Samaria to Jerusalem.
I have seen thousands of them at Bethlehem and have
met them tramping the weary road to the Dead Sea and
the Jordan.

These Russians belong to the Greek Church, which owns
most of the monasteries and convents of this country, and
which has, all told, property amounting to millions,
including some of the best real estate in Jerusalem.
It has a great hospice outside the walls of Jerusalem as
well as a magnificent church on top of the Mount of
Olives. It has other similar institutions elsewhere, and
is a great factor in the religious life of the Holy Land.

The Russians have here what is perhaps the largest
hotel of the world. Ten thousand people can sleep there
in a single night, and it has, besides, separate buildings
for families. It is known as the Russian Hospice and
lies at the west outside the city wall. It covers a space
of ten acres or more and has a high wall about it.

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

Entering the gates of this hospice, one finds himself
surrounded by Russians and Russian scenes. It is a
slice of the land of the White Bear dropped down in
Judea. There is nothing Syrian in sight. The men dress
in caps, long coats, and trousers tucked into high boots.
They are long-bearded, long-haired, and fair-faced. There
are many red heads among them and none seems to know
of the razor. The women are clad in coarse gowns
ending at six inches or more from the ankle. Most of
them wear boots, but some wear straw shoes, and wrap
cloths around their legs in place of stockings. They have
handkerchiefs tied about their heads, and their features
are usually as hard and rough as those of the men.

But suppose we go into the women's quarters of this
mighty hotel. The building is cut up into stalls which
run from one side of it to the other. These tunnel-like
rooms are lighted at the end, and standing in a central
hall it seems as though the windows were at least two
hundred feet distant. Each vault, which is eight feet
wide and fifteen feet high, is filled from end to end with
rough bunks of pine boards. Upon the boards is straw
matting, and a space six feet square forms the bed and
home of each woman. At the back of this she piles up
the bread, tea, and other belongings she has brought with
her from Russia. She sleeps stretched out on the board
in the clothing she wears in the daytime. The quarters
devoted to the men are of similar nature while those for
the families differ only in that the spaces are larger.

These pilgrims bring their bread and tea with them
from Russia. In addition to this they have a few vege-
tables which they buy of the natives. They cook with
oil stoves. When on the march each carries some bread

"THE TRIBES OF GOD GO THITHER"

along with her and a pan out of which to drink and in
which to make tea.

In some parts of the inclosure we can see families at
their meals. The men, women, and children sit on the
ground around a pot of soup. Each has his own piece of
bread and a spoon. They wash their own clothes, using
dishpans as tubs. The pans are as big as a bicycle
wheel and four inches deep. The washing is done with
cold water, which is free in the hospice, but which outside
would cost two cents a gallon.

These Russian pilgrims are very religious. They are
mostly poor, and many have been saving a lifetime in
order that they might make this tour to the Holy Land.
They undergo all sorts of hardships and spend their
time in fasting and prayer. They have a church inside
the hospice where services are held twice a day. I have
attended the church several times. It is always full of
people standing or kneeling. They cross themselves again
and again as the service goes on, and now and then get
down and bow their heads to the floor. There are simi-
lar services in the other Greek churches. I attended one
on the Mount of Olives where the reading of the Scrip-
tures and the singing were done by Russian nuns dressed
in black with stove-pipe hats without brims crowning
their heads. The hats ended in a cape or veil which fell
down the back. The faces of the nuns were uncovered
and spiritual looking. Their singing was exceedingly
sweet, and the service was impressive. The pilgrims
who listened knelt and now and then kissed the bare
floor.

At Easter time the water of the River Jordan is blessed
by the high priest of the Church, and there are many priests

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

to baptize the Faithful in the sacred river. The women
and men dress in white garments and go into the water
together. They change their clothes on the shore. The
garments they wear in the water are usually shrouds,
which they have brought from home with them for this
purpose, and which they intend to take back to be used
at their burials.

The scenes of these ''baptisms make one think of a
picnic. The men, women, and children rush about, some
laughing and screaming, and others quietly talking. The
priests dip each three times in the Jordan, giving their
blessing as they do so. After baptism some soak other
shrouds in the river to consecrate them that they may
carry them home to their friends. They also drink of
the dirty water and bottle it up to take home. Some of
the pilgrims are old and have to be lifted in and out of
the river. The current is swift, and frequently men are
drowned.

CHAPTER IX

ON THE SITE OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE

1WANT to take you this morning to the summit of
Mount Moriah and show you the site of Solomon's
Temple. It is on the same spot where Abraham, at
the command of the Lord, was about to sacrifice his
only son, Isaac, when he was told to desist and shown
the ram with its horns caught in the thicket behind
him. It is the place where the wisdom of the boy Christ
astonished the wise men; where David, Solomon, and
Elijah used to pray, and where, according to the Mo-
hammedans, the blast of the trumpet will sound forth
at the Day of Judgment. The spot is sacred to both
Christians and Moslems. Indeed, it may be called the
holiest on the face of the globe.

The geologists say that Mount Moriah is one of the
two oldest parts of the world, the other being Mount
Sinai, upon which Moses received the Ten Command-
ments. They prove this by the rocks, saying that when
the world was thrown off by the sun and floated about
in its nebulous state through the air the parts which
first solidified were the summit of Sinai and the rock which
now stands inside the mosque on the top of Moriah.
There is also a Jewish tradition that as the Lord saw the
solid earth rising out of chaos He blessed these two
spots and said:

"They shall be great in the history of the human

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

race, which I shall create, and upon one of them shall
my holy city be built. "

Mount Moriah is on the eastern edge of Jerusalem
proper. It is just opposite the Mount of Olives and
above the Garden of Gethsemane across the Valley of
Jehoshaphat. Its top is a plateau containing thirty-five
acres, or about one seventh of the whole of Jerusalem,
inside the walls. The walls partially bound this plateau,
and in them at the northeast corner of the city is the gate
through which St. Stephen is said to have passed when
he was stoned to death by the Jews. Across from the
plateau and far down below it is the Jews' wailing
place. Hugging it on the west, south, and north are
the box-shaped limestone houses which form the greater
part of Jerusalem.

In going to it we leave our hotel on Mount Zion and
make our way down David Street through a horde of
pilgrims of all colours and races. We pass the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre, go through a bazaar where men
and women, sitting on the ground, are selling glass brace-
lets and beads from Hebron, past shops selling candles
to be burnt at the tomb of our Saviour, and on through a
vaulted tunnel-like street which was once the cotton
bazaar, but which now sells everything else. Ascending
a stairway at the end of this tunnel, we find ourselves
on the plateau now occupied by the Mosque of Omar,
but formerly the site of the Temple of Solomon.

This plateau rises in terraces. We come first on to the
level, which was known as the Court of the Gentiles,
and was open to Jew and Gentile alike. From this we
go up to the Court of the Israelites and then to the Court
of the Priests, which is now under the great Mosque of

ON THE SITE OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE

Omar. In the latter court stood the open-air altar for
burnt offerings, the very rock upon which Abraham tied
Isaac when he was about to sacrifice him in obedience
to the Lord's command.

The great flat rock on the summit of Mount Moriah
over which the dome of the Mosque of Omar now rises
was the ancient threshing-floor of Oman the Jebusite.
In many parts of Palestine to-day a flat rock or a hard
piece of ground is selected as a threshing-floor upon which
the ripe grain is laid down to be trodden out by cattle
or mules. David purchased this particular floor from
Oman as an offering to the Lord so that the people
might be freed from a terrible pestilence then raging in
Jerusalem. The Bible account continues: "Then David
said, This is the house of the Lord God and this is the
altar of the burnt offering for Israel." And right away
he began preparations for the temple which was actually
built on this spot by his son Solomon.

The Moslems have their own tradition regarding this
rock. Since ancient times it has been the custom in the
Holy Land to bring the harvested grain to the commun-
ity threshing-floor, which is soon walled with toppling
piles of sheaves, each pile belonging to a different farmer.
The owners of the wheat sleep on the threshing-floor at
night so as to keep watch over their property. Ac-
cording to the Mohammedan story, two brothers, one
married, the other a bachelor, lay down to sleep beside
their respective piles. The married brother, waking in
the night, began to think how much grain he had and
then of his brother's lot compared with his own.

"Poor fellow," said the married man, "he has no wife
and children to comfort him and make his life happy.

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

To even things up a little I will slip over and add some
of my sheaves to his and he will never know I have
given them to him."

This he did, and then fell fast asleep again.

A little later the bachelor brother woke and thought
of his great stacks of grain and how he, being unmarried,
needed so much less than his brother.

"Poor fellow/' thought he, "I who am free have much
more than I need, I will give him some of my grain
while he sleeps, for he would never take it from me if
he knew I was giving it."

So he transferred a generous portion of wheat from
his heap to his brother's.

In the morning both were astonished to find their
piles exactly the same size as they had been the night
before. Then a prophet appeared to them and told them
what had passed in the night. He said that God, who
had seen and approved the evidences of their brotherly
kindness, had decided to make this threshing-floor the
place of prayer for the whole world.

Directly under the plateau on which Solomon's Temple
stood is a great catacomb, which once formed a part of
one of the Jerusalems of the past. Let us first visit
these underground caves before going into the mosque.
Descending the steps, we come into a wilderness of
vaults with roofs upheld by pillars and arches of stone.
Some of the stone blocks are of enormous size. I have
measured one which is eight feet wide and fifteen feet
high. These stones are beautifully laid. They are
closely joined and show mechanical ingenuity in their
construction. The pillars are about four feet square,
and some of them have holes bored through the corners.

Priests of the Greek Church bless the waters of the Jordan at Easter,
when hundreds of pilgrims bathe in the river, many of them clad in their
burial shrouds. Across the Jordan Joshua led his hosts dry-shod to the
assault on Jericho

Sturdy character shows in the faces of these Russian women, who
patiently trudge from shrine to shrine. The Russians are perhaps the
most devout of all the thousands of pilgrims who come to the Land of
Christ

ON THE SITE OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE

It is claimed that the vaults were constructed by Solo-
mon for his stables, and that the holes in the columns
were the tying places for the horses. In some of them
are stone mangers, which the guides say were used long
ago. Others claim that this stable story is a fiction,
and that the excavations were made in erecting the
Temple and the great columns put up to sustain its
platform. However that may be, the architecture is
wonderful for that time, or, indeed, for our own. There
are altogether a hundred or more vaults, and the mighty
stones which wall them are so heavy that it would be
impossible to handle them nowadays without the use
of machinery.

Since the site of Solomon's Temple is now a Moham-
medan shrine, and under their control, Christians can-
not visit this place unless they first obtain an official
permit. This I obtained through our American consul,
who not only arranged for a soldier to escort us, but sent
along his chief kavass, so that we have two guards with
us as we walk about. The kavass is a sort of major-
domo of the consul. He has two of them, tall, straight
Syrians attired more gorgeously than Solomon in all
his glory. They wear vests covered with bands of gold
embroidery, with long, flowing sleeves like those of the
ladies of the Middle Ages. They wear big, baggy trous-
ers, each pair of which would make two full suits for a
fat man. They have enormous scimitar-like swords at
their sides and carry ebony staffs as thick as the handle
of a baseball bat topped with great knobs of silver as
big as your fist. The United States Government fur-
nishes the outfits, except for the swords. Formerly,
whenever our consul came out of the cavernous region

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

of his hotel or walked down the narrow stone stairs of
his office, these two gaudy officials preceded him, making
the pavements ring with their staffs as they cleared his
path. When he stepped across the way to church,
though the streets were deserted and a baby might go
about without danger, a kavass always went with him
and waited outside the building until His Excellency
was ready to return. Such extreme pomp as this has,
however, begun to go out of style, though the consul
still has his strikingly garbed kavasses to lend the dignity
expected of Uncle Sam's representatives.

The Mosque of Omar was supposed by the Crusaders
to be Solomon's Temple. This is not so, of course, as
the original building was destroyed long before their
time. It is now believed to have been built by a Moslem
governor in the seventh century. But before that, and
soon after Jerusalem was destroyed in the first century
after Christ, the Roman Emperor Hadrian is known to
have built on this site a temple to Jupiter. It is believed
that some of the pillars in the present mosque came from a
church erected on Mount Zion by the Christian Emperor
Justinian. The mosque is one of the finest specimens
of Byzantine architecture.

Imagine a mighty dome of greenish copper on the top
of which is a golden crescent. Let this be as large as
or larger than that of the Capitol at Washington, and
let it rest upon a vast octagonal temple walled with tiles
so fine that any one of them would be prized as a piece
of rare china. Let there be a dado of marble below
the tiles and a wide frieze above them inlaid with texts
from the Koran in Arabic characters, and let the whole
be entered by mighty doors over which are beautifully

ON THE SITE OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE

carved arches, and you have a faint idea of the Dome of
the Rock, another name by which this mosque is known.

Here may be seen striking evidences of the belief of
the Mohammedans as to Christ and the prophets. They
believe in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and class Jesus as
one of the prophets, although not so high as Mohammed.
Among the verses of the Koran on the front of the
mosque is one reading:

The Messiah, Jesus, is only the son of Mary, the Ambassador of
God, and His word which He deposited in Mary. Believe, then, in
God and His Ambassador, and do not maintain that in one there are
three.

Another reads:

Blessings be on me in the day of my birth and my death. He h
Jesus, the Son of Mary, the word of truth, concerning whom some are
in doubt.

There are other passages of the Koran which tell the
stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Moham-
medans reverence this spot in connection with them.

Let us take off our shoes and go in. The floor of the
mosque is holy ground, so none is permitted to enter
except in his stockings or bare feet. The inside is even
more beautiful than the outside. The walls and roofs
are a mass of carvings and mosaics. The mosaic is
made up of bits of gold and glass, the latter of many
colours, all so delicately put together that they form
beautiful pictures. Each bit is only as big as the head
of a nail, or smaller, and thousands of them are required
to make a single picture. The columns upholding the
roof are of marble, and the floor is of marble carpeted
with old rugs from Turkey and Persia.

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

Right in the centre of the mosque is the huge rock
upon which Abraham built his altar for Isaac, and upon
which Oman's cattle threshed his grain, and where, the
Mohammedans say, the Angel Gabriel will stand when
he blows the last trump calling the people to judgment.
At that time, according to Moslem belief, the souls of the
human race will rush to this spot and present themselves
before Mohammed and Christ, who will pass on their
virtues and sins. After that all must go to the Pillar of
Judgment and cross on the wire rope to the Mount of
Olives. According to another Mohammedan story, the
Moslems will be turned into fleas, and Mohammed him-
self into a sheep, in which form he will ascend to heaven
with the faithful fleas in his wool.

The rock is esteemed sacred by every Mohammedan.
It is surrounded by an iron stockade which none is al-
lowed to enter. It is about forty feet long and sixty
feet wide, and rises some six feet out of the floor. It
fills the whole inclosure and comes so close to the fence
that one can touch it, or, if he is devout, as are most of
the worshippers we see in the mosque, he can put his
mouth through the bars and impress a kiss upon it.

As we walk about the fence examining the rock our
turbaned guide shows us its wonders. "Here," says he,
pointing to a round hole in one of the sides, "is the
mark of Mohammed's heel. It was from that spot that
the holy Prophet ascended to heaven, and as he rose the
rock started to go up with him holding fast to his heel.
The Angel Gabriel had to put his hand upon it to keep
it down, and here," pointing to five curious marks, "are
the places where Gabriel's fingers rested when he did so."

A little farther on the guide tells us that this rock is

.Moslem pilgrims pray at the .Mosque of Omar, which occupies the
site of Solomon's Temple. It is said that no faithful Jew will enter its
mclosure, for fear of treading on the spot where once was the Holy of
Holies

Every Friday devout Jews weep under the walls of the Mosque of
Omar, mourning the loss of their temple. They repeat for hours their
litany: "For the temple that is desolate. . . . We sit in solitude and
mourn"

ON THE SITE OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE

the centre of the earth, and that some believe it to be
the gate of hell. He shows us a plate of jasper as big
as a checker board, in which are three golden nails, saying
that the plate originally contained nineteen nails which
Mohammed had driven into it. One nail drops out at
the end of each age of the Moslem cycle, and when the
last nail is gone the end of the world will occur. The
guide offers to let me pull out the last three nails for a
dollar apiece, but I have no desire to hasten the Judg-
ment Day, and therefore refuse. In that way I save
the world.

"The devil got at this plate one day," so our consular
kavass tells me, "and was jerking out the nails at a great
rate when the Angel Gabriel caught him and pulled him
away."

These stories are silly, but they are only a few of many
which are told us when we are inside the mosque. Never-
theless, the average Mohammedan of this side of the world
believes them, and we see bearded, gowned, and tur-
baned men and white-sheeted, veiled women praying
over these holy places. They kiss the marks of Mo-
hammed's footprints and run their handkerchiefs and
beads over the rock. They pray as they do so, for the
Prophet said that one prayer here is worth a thousand
uttered anywhere else, and he prayed here himself.

The greatest interest of Mount Moriah, however, arises
from the fact that we know this was the actual site of
Solomon's Temple as well as that of the two other Jew-
ish temples which succeeded it. The first house of God
erected by the Israelites was the Tabernacle. This was
constructed at the direction of Moses just after he had
received the Commandments. It is said to have been

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

just about half the size of the Temple of Solomon, al-
though there are passages in the Scriptures which lead
us to think the latter must have been very much larger.
The Tabernacle was a movable building. It was about
fifty feet long and sixteen or seventeen feet wide. The
roof and walls were formed of curtains made of linen or
wool beautifully sewed and fastened in places with gold
buckles. There were also curtains of goat's hair and of
ram's wool dyed red. Some suppose the roof of the
Tabernacle to have been flat, and others that it was
ridged like a tent, with a cube inside about sixteen feet
square, which was the Holy of Holies. In the latter
were the Ark of the Covenant and the Tables of the Law.

Solomon's Temple was planned by David, who col-
lected much of the material used. Solomon himself
made a bargain with Hiram, King of Tyre, to aid him
in supplying the timber and certain classes of the me-
chanics. Hiram was a Phoenician king who lived up
the coast and who controlled the forests of Lebanon.
He gave Solomon a concession of certain tracts of cedar
and fir, and the Hebrew king sent men in parties of
ten thousand each to go to the mountains and cut down
the trees. The servants of Hiram helped them, and
they carried the lumber to the shores of the Mediter-
ranean and floated it down to Jaffa, whence it was
brought up to Jerusalem. The Bible says that Solomon
gave King Hiram every year two thousand measures of
wheat and twenty measures of oil as his part of the con-
tract, and that the two kings were associated together.

The first temple was begun by Solomon more than
twenty-nine hundred years ago, and it took seven years
to build it. I have translated some of its dimensions

ON THE SITE OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE

into feet. The cubit, which was then the unit of meas-
urement, was as long as the distance from a man's elbow
to the tip of his middle finger, and varied from eighteen
to twenty-one inches. Putting the cubit at twenty
inches the ground plan of the Temple was sixty-six feet
wide and one hundred and thirty-three feet long, and
according to some statements its height was fifty feet,
although one of the roofs rose eight feet and the other
sixteen above the inside walls. There is another place
in the Bible in which it is stated that the height of the
porch was one hundred and twenty cubits, which would
make it two hundred feet high.

The Temple of Solomon had disappeared long before
Christ was born. It was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar,
596 b. c, and a new building was not erected until the
Jews came back from their captivity at Babylon. This
was also destroyed many years later and a third and
last temple was erected by Herod the Great eighteen
years before Christ. In that temple occurred the scenes
of Christ's ministry. It was there that He talked with
the priests as a boy of twelve, and from there He drove
out the money changers.

The Temple of Herod is said to have been much finer
than Solomon's. It has been described by Josephus,
who probably had a ground plan of the building before
him when he wrote. He says that the space it covered
was about twice as large as that of the old temple. It
was of much the same style as the Temple of Solomon,
but its approaches were more imposing, and it doubtless
displayed all the architectural beauties of the time, which
was one of magnificent buildings.

CHAPTER X

JEWS OF JERUSALEM

TH E Jews are rapidly coming into their own. The
Holy City now contains some thirty thousand of
them ; they form about half of its whole popula-
tion. They have acquired the right to own
land in Palestine, and they can come and go as they
please. This has not always been the case. Jewish im-
migration used to be prohibited, and such Jews as bought
real estate had to purchase and hold it under other
names.

Until the last decade of the nineteenth century the
Turkish Government had a rule that no Jew might come
into Palestine and stay there longer than three weeks.
The restrictions were given up largely through the ac-
tivities of Mr. Gilman, a former American consul to
Jerusalem. When he came to the Holy City it was
the policy of the representatives of the other foreign
governments there to aid the Turkish authorities in ex-
pelling immigrant Jews. Shortly after his arrival he
was advised by the Sultan's officials that some American
Jews were overstaying their time in the Holy Land and
was requested to direct them to leave. He replied that
such action was entirely contrary to the spirit of our
government which is founded on religious toleration and
freedom, and after some negotiations the American Jews
were allowed to remain. Soon after this the British

Christian sects may quarrel over their holy places, Jews may clamour
for their national home in Palestine, while the Arabs proclaim that the
land is theirs. Neither politics nor religion disturbs this maid of mod-
ern Jerusalem

Snow is almost unknown in these grass-grown vaulted streets, beneath
which* lie buried the ruins of the Jerusalems of the past. The streets
Christ trod are twenty to eighty feet below the city of to-day

JEWS OF JERUSALEM

consul, acting under instructions from the British .
minister at Constantinople, took the same stand, and
the other leading governments followed suit. Seventy-
five years ago there were only thirty-two Jewish families
in all Jerusalem and only three thousand in all Pales-
tine.

Now there are sixty-odd thousand in the Holy Land
and, as I have said, Jews make up half the population
of the Holy City. The Jews here are now engaging in
trade, and already control a large part of the business
of Jerusalem.

Forty different languages are spoken among the Jews
of Palestine, and there are many who cannot understand
one another. In the main there are three separate classes :
First is the Ashkenazim, made up of Jews from Russia,
Poland, Austria, and Germany. These people are much
like the lower-class Jews of America, and their common
language is Yiddish. The second class is the Sephardim.
They are Spanish Jews, descendants of those who came
here centuries ago. These Jews speak a mixture of
Spanish and Hebrew. The third class is the Eastern
Jews, made up of Israelites from Syria, Persia, Arabia,
and Central Asia. They speak Arabic and look much
like Moslems.

The American Jews are comparatively few, and it is
seldom that you meet one born in the United States.
Those who claim to be American citizens are chiefly
natives who have gone to the United States to get
naturalization papers, and then returned here to live.
Many of them are frauds, and our consul believes that
some of them bought their naturalization papers without
ever leaving Palestine. American citizenship is an es-

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

pecially valuable badge of protection in this part of the
world. Said our consul to me:

"Our citizenship has been used to carry on frauds.
When I first came here I found it serving as a cloak for
crime. One man who claimed to be an American was
acting as receiver of stolen cattle, and selling them
openly. He carried on a big business, and although the
officials were aware of his criminal practices they could
not arrest him. This was so because of a difference be-
tween our government and that of Turkey.

"The treaties provide that the offences of Americans
against the Turks may be punished only by the American
consul, and we contended that this gave us the right of
trial in such cases. The Turkish Government contended
that all such offenders must be tried in the Turkish
courts, and as neither government would give in, it was
impossible to convict and punish without bringing about
international complications. As soon as I came I de-
cided to stop it and told the man I would arrest and
convict him by means of American witnesses. The re-
sult was that he did not wait for trial, but skipped out
of the country."

Most of the Jews here pride themselves on their piety.
They think themselves above the Jew who has suffered
long contamination by mixing with foreigners, and some
of them especially despise the American. Meeting one
on the street they may slap him on the stomach and
sneeringly ask how much pork he ate when he was in
the United States. In making this statement 1 refer to
the fanatics who are composed more especially of the
Spaniards and the members of the Ashkenazim. These
people have inner circles of religious aristocracy, some

JEWS OF JERUSALEM

of whom are supposed to have magic powers of healing.
Among them are many men of education and culture,
men who know the Bible from beginning to end, and who
speak several languages. One can tell nothing of the
culture of the Jerusalem Jew by his dress, for a dirty,
ragged old man is often a great scholar.

The dress here is about the same among all classes
of the Israelites. The boys and the men wear coats with-
out belts which reach from the neck to the feet. They
are full, and are slightly open at the front, showing gowns
under them. Many of the Spanish Jews wear black tur-
bans or velvet caps with a wide fringe of fur outside.
Some wear broad-brimmed felt hats which come far
down over the forehead, half hiding the ears. They do
not shave, for a long beard is a sign of wisdom, dignity,
and piety. They wear the hair long, with a curly lock
on each side of the face, in front of the ears. These
locks often reach down to the breast, and are allowed
to grow, according to a saying in Scriptures, which reads,
'Thou must not mar the corners of thy beard."

Many of the Jews never cut the hair in front of the
ears for fear of touching the beard, and I see boys with
the rest of the head shaved and these two earlocks left.

These Jerusalem Jews have fine faces. Many of them
have high foreheads, strong noses and mouths, and
beautiful eyes. Some are fair and others have olive
complexions . Their hair is of all colours from jet black
to blond and fiery red, and there are many old men
with beards of silver.

Indeed many of the Jews of the Holy City are old
men and old women who have come here to die. Je-
rusalem is to many of the Jews what Benares is to the

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

Hindu. They have a superstition that this city is on the
direct road to heaven and that they must come here in
order to attain paradise. I am told that many of the
Jews of this city believe that if they should die in other
lands they will be dragged under the earth through
the globe to the Mount of Olives, where the Resurrection
is to take place. The Jewish cemetery on the side of
the mountain contains thousands of tombs. It is said
that soil from that spot is sent all over the world to be
put in Jewish coffins. Not a few of the old men who live
here have left their business to come. Some have given
their estates to their sons and relatives, and receive al-
lowances from them. Not long ago one such came to
the American consul, and said that he would like to
leave some money to found a synagogue in Jerusalem.
He looked dirty and ragged, and the consul asked what
he had to leave. He replied that he owned under other
names six good houses in Jerusalem and that the money
to buy them had been saved out of an allowance of a
thousand dollars a year which his sons in New York
had been sending him.

The Jews of Jerusalem are far more particular as to
the observances of their religion than the Jews of America.
There are more than one hundred synagogues in this
city, in all of which worship is held on the Sabbath. I
have attended many of the services and have generally
found the synagogues full. The men read Hebrew
aloud. They come in their best clothing, and some of
the old men are gorgeous in their rich gowns of velvet
and silk.

The Sabbath here begins Friday night and does not
end until six o'clock Saturday. It begins just as soon

JEWS OF JERUSALEM

as the stars can be seen Friday, after which no work of
any kind must be done. Neither fire nor lamp may be
lighted, so most of the people light their lamps before
the dark comes and hire Gentiles to come in at bed-
time to blow them out. The meals for the Sabbath are
all cooked beforehand, and if there are any hot dishes
they must be cooked by the Gentiles.

The orthodox Jew here will not carry a bucket, an
umbrella, or even a baby on the Sabbath day. I have
just heard of a boy who was given a new suit of clothes on
Saturday, his Sabbath. The gift was made by one of the
American colony outside the walls, and the people there
watched to see how the boy could stick to his religion
and still carry his new clothes home. After pondering
some time, he finally put the clothes on and wore them,
thus escaping the sin of carrying them on God's holy day.

The Jews here have a slaughter house of their own.
Indeed, they kill all of the cattle of Jerusalem, serving
the Gentiles free of charge, in order that there may be
no danger of sinning by eating animals improperly
killed. The city abattoirs are on the road to Jericho
across the valley of Jehoshaphat, on the southern slope of
the Mount of Olives. The cattle and sheep are brought
there and passed upon by the Jewish rabbis. They are
then killed and skinned according to the Mosaic law, and
the meat is stamped by the rabbis before it is offered for
sale in the cities. A special stamp is placed on all that
supplied to the Jews, and such meat, strange to say,
brings about twice as much per pound as that sold to the
Gentiles.

If the meat is good to eat it is known as kosher. If
not killed according to the regulations, it is called tar if ,

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

and no Jew will touch it. The killing is done by the
rabbinical butcher, who cuts the animal's throat with
one stroke of the knife, going just deep enough not to
touch the bones. The law provides not only that the
meat must be healthy, but that no bone must be scratched,
cut, or broken, and if the butcher's knife slips and cuts
off a bit of bone, even though it be no thicker than a
sheet of paper, the whole carcass is regarded as bad
and fit only for the Gentiles. The Jews eat cattle and
sheep, but they will not touch the meat of pigs or game.
Said one of the sportsmen of Palestine to me:

" If the Jews ate game they would clean out our par-
tridges and other birds in a season. But as it is, there
is always good shooting."

Most of the Jews here will not eat the hind quarters
of any animal, and the hind legs and loins are sold to
the Gentiles. The Spanish Jews say that those who eat
pork will be damned, but they get around eating rump
steak by pulling out the white sinews or scraping off
the red particles of the meat and making what we know
as Salisbury steaks from them.

The Jewish quarter of Jerusalem is confined to the
southeastern part of the city. It is near the great plat-
form on which Solomon's Temple stood and inside the
Dung Gate. It is a dirty, squalid, poverty-stricken sec-
tion. Many of the Jews here are mendicants, who live
on the alms sent in by the Jews from the outside. At
fixed hours of the day bread is given away at certain
places and the people come for it in crowds. There are
funds which are supplied at regular intervals to those who
need them, and much of the population is supported this
way. They might be called educated paupers. Many

JEWS OF JERUSALEM

of these people are desperately poor. I visited a number
of the houses, finding family after family each living in
cave-like rooms no larger than a hall bedroom and
lighted only by a door at the front. In such dwellings
the floors and walls are of stone, and about the only fur-
niture is the beds, which are for the grown-ups only.
The children sleep on the floor. The kitchen is often on
a porch outside the house, and the water comes from a
court in which is a well or cistern. This well may be
used by a half-dozen different families, and its surround-
ings are unsanitary to an extreme.

On the doorposts of each of these dwellings, whether
it be of one room or more, is tacked up a roll of white
parchment six inches long. This contains the name of
Jehovah and the Ten Commandments. Every Jew here
wears the Commandments tied upon his arm under his
coat, and some have phylacteries, or strips of parchment
with texts upon them, about their foreheads.

One of the strangest sights of Jerusalem is the Jews'
wailing place, where every Friday afternoon and Saturday
morning certain sects meet on the outside of the walls
of the Mosque of Omar and with their heads bent against
the stones sorrow over the loss of Jerusalem and pray
God to give the land back to His chosen people. This
custom has been observed since the days of the Middle
Ages and it is one of the saddest of sights. I visited it
last week. In a narrow alley surrounded by miserable
houses — on stone flags which have been worn with the
bare feet of thousands of Jews — against a wall of great
blocks of marble which reached for fifty or more feet
about them, a line of men in long gowns and of women
with head shawls stood with their heads bowed, praying

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

and weeping. Many of the men had white beards and
the long curly locks which fell down in front of their
ears were silver. Others were just in their prime. There
were also young men and young girls. Not a few of the
male mourners wore European clothes, and I saw one
woman wailing in a hat and gown of Parisian design.
Most of the women, however, were dressed in Jewish
costume with shawls wrapped around their heads.

Each of the mourners had a book in his hand and read
the Lamentations of Jeremiah, swaying back and forth as
he did so. Now and then the whole party broke out into a
chant, a gray-haired rabbi acting as leader and the rest
coming in on the refrain. The substance of one of the
chants was as follows:

O Lord, we pray thee have mercy on Zion,
Gather the children of Jerusalem together!
May the kingdom soon return to Zion!
Comfort those who mourn over Jerusalem,
And let the branch of Jesse spring up in Zion!

Still more affecting was this one:

Leader — For the palace that lies desolate.
Response — We sit in solitude and mourn.
Leader — For our Majesty that is departed.
Response — We sit in solitude and mourn.
Leader — For the walls that are destroyed.
Response — We sit in solitude and mourn.
Leader — For our great men who lie dead.
Response — We sit in solitude and mourn.
Leader — For our priests who have stumbled.
Response — We sit in solitude and mourn.

The effect of this chant cannot be appreciated unless
you hear it. The old men, the weeping women who kiss

Many learned Jews come to end their days in the Holy City. The
raggedest man may be the greatest scholar. Some of them have returned
from America whence their successful sons send funds for their support
in the land of their fathers

The Tower of David was standing here when Christ walked in Zion.
Jerusalem, like other ancient cities, was surrounded by walls for its de-
fence, with towers here and there along their course

JEWS OF JERUSALEM

the stones of the wall that separates them from what was
once the site of Solomon's Temple, and that is even now
the holiest spot on the earth to the Jew, the genuine
feeling expressed by all and the faith they show in
thus coming here week after week and year after year,
are most wonderfully impressive. It is indeed one of
the strange sights of this strangest of cities. A nation
is mourned for.

CHAPTER XI

THE EVIL EYE

THE Evil Eye is abroad in the Holy Land, and a
glance from it will bring you misfortune. It will
lame your horse, cow, or camel, and it may cause
your child to sicken or die. It can ruin your
health or your business, and it may even send your soul
to eternal damnation. Those who possess the evil eye
are devils incarnate, but you cannot tell who they are.
They go about in the shape of innocent-looking men,
women, and children, so you will not realize that their
spells have been cast upon you until misfortune comes.

The belief exists throughout Palestine and is common
all over this part of the world. Every house in Jerusalem,
whether Jew, Moslem, or Christian, contains charms to
ward off such spells. Every man, woman, and child car-
ries a talisman to keep off the witches. Some of these
charms are in the shape of a hand, because of an old
Jewish saying that the hand of God will arrest all dis-
asters, and a Mohammedan habit of calling upon the hand
of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet, to guard the
Faithful from evil. Silver hands are sold as charms, and
the wealthier classes wear hands of gold inside the necks
of their gowns. Every Jerusalem house has a painting
or carving of a hand on its front door to keep off the evil
eye; and even in the new houses which are now going
up they are putting hands over the windows as well

THE EVIL EYE

as at the front doors. Over their doors hang bags of
charms containing an egg, a piece of alum, some gariic,
and a large blue bead.

Blue is believed to be a colour which frightens the
devil. These people think that anything blue will ward
off the evil eye, and for this reason horses, donkeys,
and camels have strings of blue beads round their necks.
Every horse and donkey that I have ridden since I set
foot in the Holy Land has been decorated with beads,
and in a carriage trip that I recently took across country,
changing my teams three times, every horse we drove had
a blue necklace. One was a three-year-old colt, which
was lively and skittish. He wore several strands of
blue beads, each as big as the nail of my thumb. As he
jumped about he broke the string and the beads fell off
and were lost. The driver went back to look for them,
but hunted in vain, and was troubled during the rest of
the day. When toward evening the colt got a stone in
his foot and went lame, he said it was the evil eye, which
might have been kept off had the beads not been lost.

I see many children here wearing blue beads, some of
which are the shape of an eye. There is one special
kind made, in Hebron which is considered most effective.
It is a bead of blue glass of the shape of a hand with five
fingers. It is worn as a charm. Some of the children
are clad in blue gowns with white circles stamped on
them. Every store has some blue inside it, and in some
a silver hand is hung up on the walls. Every bride
wears blue beads at her wedding, and in wedding pro-
cessions salt, rice, and sugar plums are thrown at the bride
and bridegroom to keep off the evil eye and bring luck.

I have been warned that I should always have some

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

alum in my pocket, for this is a charm which will keep
away witches. It is usually carried along with the beads.
Some beads are made with a small piece of alum inside
them, and people who are ashamed to show their belief
in the beads often carry alum in their pockets. If a
child goes out without charms the mother is greatly
alarmed, and if she thinks that someone has cast an
evil eye on it she burns a bit of the child's clothes with
incense and a small piece of alum. She first prays over
the child, waving the bit of stuff and the alum about as
she does so. She then throws the charm into an open fire
and holds the child over it. As the alum burns it gives
off a smoke which takes certain shapes, and the mother
believes that by looking at them she can learn who has
cast the evil eye on her child. The same rite is gone
through with by pretty girls who feel ill on coming home
from a call. They work this charm to find out who has
cast a spell on them.

One of the commonest safeguards against the evil eye
is a text from the Bible or the Koran such as: "Break
down the spell of the Eye"; or " By the blessings of God."
These phrases written in Arabic characters are framed
and hung up in many of the houses. They are also
carved upon furniture.

The Jews carry about texts of the Scriptures. The
Christians have relics of saints, and some of the natives
here think they have pieces of the true cross.

It is customary to use the name of God at the begin-
ning of every sentence which contains the name of one's
friend.

The people of Palestine do not like to hear themselves
complimented unless at the same time you use the name

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the centre of superstition in
Jerusalem, where imagination sets the only limit to stories told to the
tourists — and implicitly believed by many of them

The women of the Holy Land are great believers in the power of the
Evil Eye and wear blue beads and other charms to keep the spirits away.
Bits of alum, which is supposed to be especially effective, are often worn in
little bags around the neck

THE EVIL EYE

of God. Otherwise they believe such expressions are
bound to bring misfortunes and possibly troubles and
death. If you call a boy or a girl pretty its mother's
heart is filled with terror, and she straightway throws
out her hand, extending the index and little finger in a
way supposed to ward off the devil and to prevent the
evil consequences of your remark. If you wish to praise
the beauty of a child you must begin the sentence with,
"May God surround thee." After that you may go on
as you please. If you pat the child on the head and fail
to use this sentence, the mother upon returning home
will take the child into a room and put it in the middle
of the floor. She will then take a shovel and gather some
dust from each of the four corners, and throw it into the
fire, crying: "Fie on thee, evil eye."

Similar precautions should be taken in admiring a
horse or a donkey, and there are ways of keeping the evil
eye away from them. If a man has a spirited horse
which he fears the people may admire, he carries with
him some salt. As he rides through the crowds he will
now and then sprinkle a little salt under the feet of the
horse, especially if he sees the crowd looking at it. If
any one asks whether he will sell the animal he must
answer yes, but if asked what he will take he makes the
price so high that the man cannot buy. At such times
he usually requests the would-be purchaser to stop think-
ing of his horse for fear it may bring misfortune.

Another superstition regarding salt relates to babies at
birth. It is sprinkled over their bodies to keep off the
devil, and is used at all other ceremonies connected with
children.

The power of the evil eye is also possessed by spirits

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

who inhabit human beings. The people here believe in
one class of spirits who live underground but who are
fed by those on earth. They are said to come up and
take the wheat from the threshing-floors and the bread
from the ovens, and the only way to keep them from
doing so is to utter a sentence from the Koran or Bible
as you put the bread in to bake, or spread out the grain.
These same spirits hover about the fire, and if you quench
it without asking Mohammed to protect you the spirits
are liable to beat you or perhaps lame you for life.

These underground spirits are known as the jinn. Their
favourite place of residence is below the front doorsteps,
for which reason women are not allowed to sit there.
The jinn, or genii, are supposed to be an organized body,
having a sultan, a court, and regular officials. They
keep guard on the food stores and are on the whole
fairly good fellows. They are said to be fond of human
company. It is even whispered that they sometimes as-
sume human shape and marry mortals. They are be-
lieved to be most common in Egypt. One may attract
a jinn by whistling, and it is said that the girls here
frequently whistle. Some of the men of Palestine are
jealous of the jinn, thinking they have association with
their wives, and some will not look at a real woman for
fear the jinn girls, who they imagine are in love with them,
will object.

One of the queer superstitions here in Jerusalem is the
idea that a marriage in a cemetery will propitiate the
Lord and cause Him to favour His people. This is be-
lieved by the native Jews, and several cemetery weddings
have recently occurred on account of the drought. Pal-
estine has had no rain for weeks and the crops are drying

THE EVIL EYE

up. The people are wildly excited over the prospect.
There is also an epidemic of infantile paralysis, which
has been carrying off the children. The people think
that God is angry with them, and perhaps wroth because
the graveyard marriages have been too few. To pacify
Him they have had weddings in the cemeteries, though a
graveyard is considered a most unlucky place for starting
upon the life matrimonial. Indeed, it so unlucky that
brides and grooms have to be hired to get married there.
At a marriage which took place this week the couple
received two hundred dollars in gold, besides food for
two years, as a present for having the ceremony in the
cemetery. In this case the groom was a Jew from
Yemen, Arabia, and the bride a Jewess from Aleppo, in
Syria. The bride was late coming, and the three thou-
sand worshippers who had assembled to see the ceremony
had to wait for two hours. She was finally carried in
under a canopy, and took her stand on one side of an open
grave while the bridegroom stood on the other. Stand-
ing thus they exchanged marriage vows. Two more
cemetery weddings are planned, but it is difficult to get
willing couples, as such marriages are supposed to be
disastrous. Nevertheless, the charm seems to be work-
ing. The wind has changed since the first ceremony
took place, and it may rain by and by.

CHAPTER XII

EASTER IN JERUSALEM

AT NO time in the whole year is the Holy City so
/\ interesting as during Easter Week. Jerusalem

/ % seems always filled to overflowing, but during
^ Holy Week it is crowded and jammed with
people for days and nights on end to a degree that it is
impossible to describe.

I had the good fortune to be here during the most
remarkable Easter that Jerusalem ever had, when by a
curious coincidence the calendars of the various sects
fixed the holy feasts on the same days, and the Jewish
Passover and the Mohammedan festival of Nebu Musa,
or the pilgrimage from the Mosque of Omar to the tomb
of Moses, came during Easter Week. These celebrations
packed the narrow, vaulted, winding streets of Jerusalem
with a jam of crushed and crushing humanity. They
filled the monasteries which surround the walls with tens
of thousands of pilgrims, and clothed the Holy City in
a greater variety of colours than were in the coat which
Jacob gave to his favourite son Joseph.

The walls of Jerusalem enclose an area of not more than
three hundred acres of ground, made up of hill and hol-
low, all filled with the flat-roofed box-like houses. There
is no regularity in the city. The streets wind in and
out and up and down, now becoming narrow, murky
tunnels, and now roofed with the blue sky of Palestine.

Grandfather and grandson — and both are followers of the ancient
profession of begging. Under Turkish taxation the Palestinians were
reduced to such dire poverty that asking alms is considered no disgrace

EASTER IN JERUSALEM

They are so narrow that through most of them no wheeled
vehicle can go, and standing in the middle of many of
them you can touch the walls on both sides with your
outstretched hands. It is in such streets that the thou-
sands move to and fro at Easter.

I doubt whether there is a town of five hundred pop-
ulation in the United States which is built upon three
hundred acres of land. Here there are over one hundred
times that many people, and the Easter visitors swell
the number to as many more. During Holy Week the
bulk of this mass of humanity crowds into the section
of the city surrounding the Church of the Holy Sepul-
chre. There seem to be scores of thousands of worship-
pers in an area less than that of a city block, and the
two or three narrow streets leading to the sanctuary
become so crowded that Moslem soldiers must be con-
stantly on guard to keep them in order. The gay col-
ours of the clothes of the Orient turn the streets into a
flowing mass of broken rainbows, and the jabber of a
score of languages makes a noise quite as remarkable as
that heard at the Tower of Babel.

Let me show you David Street as it looked to me the
day after Palm Sunday. David Street is the narrow way
leading from Jaffa Gate down into the city. It is about
ten feet wide, and we go through it into the Christian
Street, which, by a second turn, brings us to the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre. At the top is the Tower of
David, a square stone structure one hundred feet high, a
part of which was in existence before the Christian Era.
In the large square in front of this is the vegetable mar-
ket of Jerusalem, where pedlars from Bethlehem and
elsewhere sit on the stones with their baskets about

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

them. Standing with our backs to the tower, as far as
we can see, we look upon a moving mass of pilgrims
and natives of all ages and colours and costumes.

Twenty different nations are represented in the faces
which look toward us. Here is an Ethiopian priest, in a
tall black cap and a long black gown, whose black eyes
are set in features as shiny as oiled ebony. He is one of
the Abyssinian fathers and has his place in the ceremonies
at Easter. That mahogany-faced man in a yellow gown
is a Persian, and the fierce-looking Ishmaelite behind
him, in a blanket of black-and-white stripes, his bronzed
face crowned by a yellow silk handkerchief, is a Bedouin ;
he is of the Moslem faith, and is on his way to wor-
ship at the mosque. Behind him comes a woman in a
white sheet. Her features are covered with a yellow
gauze cloth with red leaves printed upon it; she is the
wife of a Mohammedan merchant, and her face is not
to be seen outside the harem. That slender, black-
eyed girl, with the dark roses in her cheeks, is the daugh-
ter of a Polish Jew. Her cap is black, and, like all of
her sisters, she wears a little silk flowered shawl.

Some of the prettiest women in the world are peddling
vegetables about you. As you note their complexions
you can hardly realize that they live under the fierce
sun of the tropics. Their skins are as fair as the cheeks
of the girls of Dublin, and their regular features would
make them beauties in America. They wear high caps
bound round with silver coins, row after row rising up
from their foreheads against a background of black
velvet.

Here is a crowd of Russian peasants. The honest
bronzed faces of the women look out under the brown

EASTER IN JERUSALEM

handkerchiefs tied about their heads in place of bonnets,
and their short dresses of cheap cotton or wool come
half way down over their high-topped boots. The men
have tall fur caps, and their coats are made with skirts
as full as the petticoats of the women. The faces of both
sexes are strong, with honesty and industry showing in
every line. They cross themselves as two Greek priests
pass them.

Let us push our way through the crowd. That tall
soldier in red fez and European uniform breaks the
way for us. We pass good-natured Moslems and Jews;
we are jostled by Bedouin girls in gypsy dress, and by
Bethlehem shepherds clad in sheep-skins. Going by the
market women squatting at the turning, we follow the
crowd and pass on to the entrance of one of the tunnel-
like bazaars. Leaving this, we turn into another arch
at the right, and diving through vaulted, twisting caves
of stores, we go down some steps, past the money-
changers, who sit at the street corners with little glass-
covered boxes of gold and silver coins before them.
Brushing by dozens of beggars we arrive at last in the
court in front of the great Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
Now we are in the heart of the Jerusalem of Easter.

This court is where the multitude stood to see the
crucifixion of our Lord. On the opposite side from the
entrance, in a corner of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,
is the Rock of Calvary, and the buildings which surround
it are the convents and monasteries of the various Chris-
tian sects.

A stream of worshippers of all nations passes contin-
uously among the hordes of beggars and pedlars squat-
ting on the stones. Here a young Syrian is selling

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

candles of all kinds and sizes, from tapers no bigger than
your little finger to great cylinders as thick as your arm,
to pilgrims who go to burn them before the altars within
the sepulchre.

There is a rosary pedlar doing a rushing business.
She is a Bethlehem girl with two bushels of beads. They
are made of olive wood and of the pips of the olive itself,
as well as of mother-of-pearl. All around you are the
characters of the Scriptures. Here is a dark-brown man
whose face reminds you of that of Judas in Leonardo da
Vinci's "Last Supper." He is peddling little crosses of
mother-of-pearl. Here is a woman with a face as beau-
tifully sad as that of Mary Magdalene, and there is an
old man selling pictures of the church dignitaries, whose
patriarchal beard and honest eyes make you think of
Abraham. There are pedlars of brass rings and glass
bracelets from Hebron. The crier of drinks in bare feet
and blue gown, with his skin water bottle on his back,
passes along announcing his wares by clinking his two
brass drinking-cups together.

The crowd moves on in a never-ending stream toward
the door of the church. It is the same, morning and
evening, day in and day out. Thousands upon thou-
sands of footsteps have worn the flag stones to the smooth-
ness of marble, and on and on they come, year after year
and generation after generation. We enter the Church
of the Holy Sepulchre, the church which these people
believe covers the spot where Christ was crucified and
where His tomb is kept. It is the church that Constantine
built, the church for which the Crusaders fought, the
shrine where the religious of all Christendom would bow.

It is a vast building of yellow limestone rising out of

EASTER IN JERUSALEM

and above a jumble of houses in front of the court, with a
dome a little smaller than that of our Capitol at Wash-
ington. At one side a chapel rises above the other parts
of the structure to the second story, and the whole
stands upon hill and valley so that the chapel rests
upon a rock high above the level of the ground floor.
This rock is supposed to be Calvary, upon which stood the
cross of Christ. Around the rotunda extends a series of
buildings, consisting of gaudily decorated churches and
chapels of a dozen different denominations and sects. A
wide vaulted aisle runs around between these and the
rotunda into which they open.

Entering, we go through a high-arched door past a
ledge cut into the wall at the right where Mohammedan
officers smoke long-stemmed water-pipes while they sit
with their legs crossed and direct the soldiers posted
here to keep the crowds in order. We go into a great
square vestibule in the centre of which, with rows of
immense candles at its head and foot, there lies under a
long row of beautiful brass lamps a rectangular stone of
rose-coloured marble about eight feet long and four feet
wide. It is four inches above the floor, and around its
edges burn the wax tapers of worshippers. This is the
Stone of Unction on which it is said the body of the Lord
was laid when it was anointed for burial.

Pilgrim after pilgrim walks forward and prostrates
himself before it. Each one gets down on his knees, and
bows his head to the floor, then leans over and kisses the
stone. As we come closer we see that the marble has been
worn rough by the pressure of human lips. As we stand
and watch the earnest worshippers who pray before it,
we cannot but be impressed with their faith. An old

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

peasant woman in black, who trembles as she puts her
long thin hands caressingly on the marble, bends over and
touches it again and again with her withered lips. A
pretty boy of ten crosses himself and kneels beside his
Armenian mother while they go through their devo-
tions together. Another pilgrim lays his beads on the
slab, that they may be blessed by the contact, and crosses
himself as he rises. Now there kneels a family of Greeks,
the men in the ballet-girl costume of the Albanians, fol-
lowed by a richly dressed lady who lays some cakes of
incense on the slab, and prays long before it. Behind
her come two Russian women with long strips of white
linen in their hands. Waiting until the crowd has par-
tially thinned, they measure the stone with this cloth,
and cut it into strips of just the size of the slab. They
rub these strips over the stone, praying as they do so,
for these are to be their winding sheets, and they be-
lieve that, buried in them, they will rest more easily in
their graves. It is difficult to appreciate the solemnity
of the worship at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

There is superstition mixed with earnest, honest faith,
as is so often the case in the poor, weak human brain,
even in those who lay claim to greater intellectuality
than these poor pilgrims.

These tens of thousands of pilgrims continue to pray
as they rise from the Stone of Unction, and then with
bowed heads walk on into the great rotunda of the
church itself. Here in the very centre rises an oblong
marble structure about thirty feet high, twenty-five feet
long, and seventeen feet wide. The marble is yellow
with age and the architecture of the building is rude
rather than artistic. This is the tomb of Christ. It is

EASTER IN JERUSALEM

more like a chapel than a tomb, and its fronts and sides
are covered with candles. Curious brass lamps, with
glass globes of different colours, hang like a frieze around
its alabaster top, and between these are oil paintings of
scriptural scenes. In its front, in gold pillars as tall as
a man, are columns of painted wax each six inches thick
and twelve feet high. At the top of each of these a flame
trembles.

At Easter there flows through its low door an endless
stream of humanity. We enter through a vestibule so
dark that we can hardly see the features of the people
around us, and find the same kissing and praying going
on. Upon the column of marble about three feet high,
standing in the centre of the vestibule, thousands of
kisses are pressed every day. Into its top is set a piece
of the stone which was rolled from the door of Christ's
tomb. The stones walling the tomb are very thick, and
the door is so narrow that only one man can enter it at
a time, and so low that even boys bow their heads in
going in. The space within is so small that it will hold
only four persons at once. It is dimly lighted with can-
dles, and a Greek priest in cap and gown is always on
guard. At the right of the room, set into the wall, there
is a marble slab of purest white resting upon another
slab about four feet high and forming a box or ledge.
This box is supposed to have been the sepulchre of
Christ, to the people of the Christian world the holiest
of the holy places of the earth. The worshippers here
pray and drop their tears, and men reverently back their
way out to give place to others. All of the Christian
sects claim a right to the tomb, and it is free of access
to every denomination.

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

The chapels of the various churches opening into the
rotunda are gorgeously decorated, and each sect has some
relic of the Crucifixion which people consider their es-
pecial charge and which they guard with the greatest
reverence. One chapel contains the stocks in which
some of the saints were imprisoned, and the chapel of
the Syrians has the tomb of Nicodemus and of Joseph of
Arimathea. The Latins have the column of the scourg-
ing. The Greeks, who have the finest chapel of all those
surrounding the rotunda, are first, both in wealth and
power, in the Church of the Sepulchre.

The Oriental Christians are very superstitious, and
have implicit faith in all the stories connected with the
Sepulchre. They believe that the ceremonies of Easter
carry with them saving grace, and during this Holy Week
they are in a state of religious frenzy. The officers
of the various churches do all they can to increase this
excitement, with the result that there is a series of re-
ligious pageants in which each patriarch and his bishops
try to outshine the other churches in splendour and
gorgeous ceremonials. The competition is so great that
at times the various sects break out into unchristian
fights, and once there was a riot in the Holy Sepulchre
in which more than three hundred pilgrims were suf-
focated or trampled to death.

During the ceremonies of Easter, companies of soldiers
are stationed in the more holy places of Jerusalem, and
several companies surround the various patriarchs in their
church exercises.

The celebrations begin with Palm Sunday. The pa-
triarchs bless the palms which are distributed by the
thousands to the people. Every man, woman, and child

Waiting for the Holy Fire to come down from Heaven, a "miracle"
celebrated by the Greek Church during Easter Week. From the candle
mysteriously lighted inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, others are
lighted in rapid succession

The use of ladders to gather the olive crop has replaced the old, waste-
ful method of beating the trees to shake off the fruit. The olive grows
best where its roots can find their way into the crevices of a rock

EASTER IN JERUSALEM

in Jerusalem seems to be waving palm branches, and the
court and Church of the Sepulchre are filled with green.
The Greek Patriarch and his bishops march three times
around the grand aisle outside of the rotunda of the
church, bearing a cross of gold and preceded by clouds
of incense from urns carried by the bishops in gorgeous
white brocaded silk gowns covered with roses of red and
gold. In the procession there are a score or more of
bishops with crosses of diamonds six inches long upon
their breasts, and with their long hair flowing from under
their high caps and down upon their shoulders. The
Greek Patriarch, the central figure of all of these cele-
brations and the head of the Greek Church in Palestine
and Arabia, carries the gold cross-like staff of his office.
He is dressed in the most gorgeous of gowns of cloth of
gold and silver, and upon his handsome gray head is his
cap of high place — a great dome-like tiara of silver and
gold, fairly blazing with diamonds, emeralds, and rubies,
each of them worth a fortune.

Every day of Holy Week has its ceremonies, and be-
tween times the pilgrims visit the spots made sacred by
association with Christ's life about Jerusalem. They
kiss the ground on which Stephen was stoned; they visit
the monastery which now stands on the floor of the house
of Pontius Pilate; they pray before Christ's prison,
and they hold services all along the Via Dolorosa, kneel-
ing and praying at the various stations.

The Easter festival itself is not so wonderful in com-
parison with the services of the week. The day is ush-
ered in with the ringing of bells. The Russian pilgrims
rush into each other's arms and give the "kiss of peace."
The Easter celebrations are more notable for the display

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

of fine vestments and gorgeous plate than for the excel-
lence of the music or unusual features in the ceremonies.
The Latin churches hold their services in front of the
chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, the Latin Patriarch offi-
ciating. There is a solemn high mass in front of the
Sepulchre, and after this the Patriarch and bishops, fol-
lowed by the crowd bearing lighted candles, march
around the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, chanting and
offering up their prayers on the spots made sacred by
their association with the Saviour's death and burial.
The ceremonies of the Greek Church come later, when
all over the hills about Jerusalem can be heard the voices
of the people and the sound of the bells pealing forth
the song of the risen Saviour.

CHAPTER XIII

WASHING THE FEET OF THE APOSTLES

TWO of the great sights of Easter in Jerusalem are
the foot-washing on Holy Thursday and the
"miracle" of the descent of holy fire from heaven
on Easter Eve. During my visits to Jerusalem
I have seen both ceremonies.

The washing takes place in the open air at the door
of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greek Pa-
triarch washes the feet of twelve of his bishops in com-
memoration of the foot-washing of the apostles by Christ
after the Last Supper.

By dawn of Holy Thursday, at the time I last saw this
rite, the court was packed, and for hours before the
ceremony began the streets were jammed with a crowd
of Mohammedans and Christians, of Orientals and Oc-
cidentals, such as you will see nowhere else in the world.
Many of the pilgrims slept in the court all night in order
to be sure of places. In the centre of the court stood an
oval rostrum about four feet above the stones. Around
its floor ran an iron railing enclosing a space about eight
feet wide and twelve feet long. Inside the railing and
running around it were seats, and at the back a gold and
white armchair cushioned with red satin. This stage
was for the ceremony, and the chair the throne of the
Patriarch. The other seats were for the bishops. Around
this platform, to keep back the crowd, was a guard of

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

soldiers, and back of these, in a solid mass, were the
people.

From my seat on a housetop I looked with wonder at
the twenty thousand people below. The steps leading
to the chapel of Mount Calvary were filled with Mo-
hammedan women in sheet-like gowns with veiled faces,
and every niche and corner of the buildings surrounding
the court was covered by Greek men and boys holding
on to the walls as best they could. The ledges of the
convent were filled with Syrians, and even the roof of
the Sepulchre itself had its coping of picturesque hu-
manity.

There was a stir in the crowd. I looked toward the
door of the church. Preceded by two fierce-looking
Syrian kavasses with swords at their sides and carrying
silver-headed staffs, came the bishops and in their midst
the stately figure of the Patriarch himself. The grand
procession passed slowly and majestically through the
mass of people. A wonderful silence succeeded the
tumult as the bishops mounted the steps of the rostrum.
The Patriarch took his seat on his chair of state and
the twelve bishops arranged themselves on each side.
They were fine-looking men, all of them, with their full
silken beards and their gorgeous robes.

Presently a chanting solo was heard from the convent
on the courtyard. There against the wall in an impro-
vised pulpit above the heads of the multitude a Greek
priest in black cap and gown stood with a gold-plated
book open on a rack in front of him. His chant con-
tinued during the greater part of the proceedings. A
priest brought to the rostrum a large golden pitcher in
a basin of gold as big as a foot-bath and placed it in front

The Church of the Pater Noster, on the Mount of Olives, contains tablets
of the Lord's Prayer in thirty-two languages

With towel and basin the Greek Patriarch washes the feet of his twelve
bishops each Easter Week, thus commemorating Christ's washing of the
feet of His apostles. The bishop representing Peter always raises objec-
tions, which the Patriarch overrules

WASHING THE FEET OF THE APOSTLES

of the Patriarch. As His Beatitude and the bishops rose,
there was a waving of the crosses formed of candles, a
passing of the hands this way and that, and a great
deal of bowing, which was understood only by the Greeks
and the Russians.

Then the Patriarch prepared for the washing. Stand-
ing in front of his chair, he first took off his great dome
of a hat. As he did so his long gray locks fell down
almost to his waist and his fair, open, dignified face shone
out under the sun. He next laid off his grand gown;
piece by piece the cloth of gold was removed, until at
last he stood forth in a white robe of the finest cream-
coloured silk crepe bound round the waist with a gold-
and-white girdle. In this still grand attire personating the
Saviour, he took a long Turkish bath towel and twisted
it about his loins. Then stooping over he poured the
water from the gold pitcher into the basin.

The twelve bishops, in the meantime, were busy get-
ting their feet out of their English congress-gaiters and
pulling off their white cotton socks for the washing.
Each bared one foot and held it out to be washed as the
Patriarch came around with the basin. The Patriarch
did the washing very quickly, rubbing each foot with
water and drying it with a towel. As he finished he bent
over and kissed the foot he had washed and then went
on to the next. The last bishop represented St. Peter,
and, after the example of Peter of the past, he objected
to having his feet washed by the Lord; he rose and
gesticulated violently. But the Patriarch opened the
Bible and read to him the admonition of Christ to Peter,
shaking his hand at Peter as he did so. A moment later
Peter sat down humbly and submitted to the washing.

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

At this moment the bells of the Greek churches all
over Jerusalem burst out in a chorus of rejoicing. The
preacher against the wall chanted louder than ever,
while the great crowd surged this way and that in their
efforts to get nearer the platform. The Patriarch de-
scended, the bishops followed, and in double file they
marched out through the crowd, with the kavasses clear-
ing the way. A priest carried in front of the Patriarch
a vase of the holy water in which the feet were washed,
and into this His Beatitude dipped a great bouquet of
roses with which he sprinkled the water over the crowd.
The people held up their faces to catch the purifying
drops and rushed to the platform to wipe up with their
handkerchiefs what was spilled on the floor. Those who
succeeded in thus wetting their handkerchiefs then pressed
them over their faces.

The "miracle" of the holy fire also takes place in the
church in front of the tomb two days after the foot-
washing ceremony. The Latin churches have not taken
part in it for more than three hundred years. The
Roman Catholics protest against it, and it is now managed
entirely by the Greeks and the other sects of the Orient.
. The Greeks say that the "miracle" has been celebrated
ever since the days of the apostles. It is mentioned in
theological literature as far back as the ninth century,
and in the twelfth century it was made use of to arouse
a religious fervour against the enemies of Christianity.
Most of the pilgrims of the Eastern churches believe that
the fire actually comes down from heaven and that they
are able to ignite their candles from flames sent by God.

This sacred fire appears in the tomb of the Holy Sep-
ulchre precisely at two o'clock in the afternoon of the

WASHING THE FEET OF THE APOSTLES

Saturday before Easter. On the morning of that day all
of the lights of the church are put out, and the people
stand for hours and wait for the great event. There
are holes in the walls of the Sepulchre itself, and through
these the candles of believers are passed to the Pa-
triarch of Jerusalem, who is inside. He lights them with
the sacred flame as soon as it appears and hands them
out burning. Other candles are lighted from these, and
runners carry the holy fire all over Palestine, to Bethle-
hem and to Nazareth, and to the Sea of Galilee.

The night before the miracle hundreds sleep in differ-
ent chapels and in the rotunda, in order to hold good
places for the morrow, and during the day the churches
are thronged to such an extent that people are often
injured by the crush. In the morning everyone has a
bunch of candles in his hand. There are ten thousand
dozens of candles in the crowd, and all are to be lighted
within an hour with fire from heaven, as they believe.

When the ceremonies begin, the Greek Patriarch and
his bishops in gorgeous dresses march three times round
the Sepulchre with banners, praying. They ask God to
send down the fire, and their march is preceded by a
flag and a cross. There is chanting and crossing, and
then the Copts follow their Ethiopian Patriarch, gorgeous
in his gold cap and gown. Now there is silence, and the
only sound is that of the squeezing mass as it breath-
lessly watches.

The Patriarch has entered the Sepulchre, and the fire
is expected from heaven. No one seems to suspect that
it comes from his matches, and the scratching, if there
be any, is not heard. It appears to be all dark within
the walls of the Sepulchre. Suddenly there is a great

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

shout. A faint light shines out through the holes. The
soldiers struggle to keep the crowd back. Men with
whips push this way and that, making roads through
the mass which the soldiers try to keep clear. The
priests stand at the holes in the walls, and great bunches
of candles are passed in. They are handed out lighted,
and fleet runners seize them and dash to the various
chapels. The Copt chapel at the back of the Sepulchre
flames with lights, and in less time than it takes for me to
write this sentence, the whole of the mass below me is a
blaze of fire. Every man, woman, and child holds a
lighted candle, and many are hauled up by strings from
one gallery to the other. A priest creeps along the roof
of the chapel of the Sepulchre. He lights the hundreds
of lamps and candles upon its edges; and as I look over it
I see that the Greek chapel beyond now blazes with
thousands of coloured lights. The lamps over the whole
of the great church are burning. The smoke comes up
in great clouds, and the air is perceptibly warmer.

It is just seven minutes by my watch since the first
candle was lighted, and in fifteen minutes the sacred fire
will be all over Jerusalem.

IOO

Ready-mades have not yet arrived in the Near East. Jerusalem
tailors sit at the doors of their tiny dark shops on ledges two feet above
the street level. Customers must stand outside to bargain and be
measured

The Greek Church has the finest collection of religious paintings in
all Jerusalem. This has long been the richest and most powerful of the
Christian sects in the Holy City and has roused much antagonism in the
other churches

CHAPTER XIV

A TALK WITH THE GREEK PATRIARCH

I HAVE just had an audience with one of the chief
religious functionaries of the oriental world. The
Patriarch of Jerusalem is first in the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre, and as the head of the Greek Church
in Syria, Palestine, and Arabia, he is the pope of the
East. Most of the people of Russia belong to what was
once a part of the Greek Church, and it has other mil-
lions of members in Greece, Turkey, and Asia Minor.
As a result of immigration, there are also hundreds of
Greek churches in the United States. It is the most
powerful and the richest church of all the denominations
represented in Jerusalem.

There is no king in the world who appears in such
splendour upon state occasions as the Patriarch of Je-
rusalem. He wears cloth of gold and his great hat is
covered with magnificent diamonds, emeralds, and rubies.
The bishops who march with him have crosses of dia-
monds hanging about their necks, and their dresses are of
gold and silver brocade. The mitre and other church
insignia are of solid gold and silver. In the treasury of
the Greek Church here there are jewels which would
make the treasures of many a palace seem commonplace,
for the rich men and the kings of the world have for gene-
rations been giving to this collection, thinking that in
so doing they have been buying their way into heaven.

101

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

The Greek Church has a score of monasteries and con-
vents in the Holy City where it can accommodate pil-
grims by the thousands. Its believers come to worship
here from the borders of Siberia, from the isles of Greece,
and from the wilds of Arabia, and as I write there are
thousands of Russian pilgrims paying their devotions in
the gorgeous Greek chapel of the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre. The Greek Church has a faith which might
be called a cross between Roman Catholicism and Prot-
estantism. It differs from Catholicism chiefly in deny-
ing the spiritual supremacy of the Pope, in not demanding
the celibacy of the clergy, except the bishops, and in
authorizing all of its people to read the Scriptures. It
claims to be the original Christian church and says that
the Roman Catholics broke away from it. The dispute
between the two branches of the Church arose three or
four hundred years after Christ. It was a question as
to what should be the rank of the Patriarch of Con-
stantinople, and as the Pope would not give in the trou-
ble began. It continued off and on until about iooo A. D.,
when the two churches broke apart, and from that time
the Greek Church has existed on its own footing.

The head of the Greek Church is the Patriarch of
Constantinople, and under him are the patriarchs of
Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. Since the sixteenth
century, the Russian branch has been independent of
the main body. These patriarchs are elected by the
clergy and the laity. They have limited terms of office,
but the Patriarch's power over the people here in Je-
rusalem is to a large extent that of a judge as well as
of a pope.

But let me tell you about my talk with His Beatitude.

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A TALK WITH THE GREEK PATRIARCH

It was arranged by one of the church and the audience
took place in the Patriarch's house, a great stone build-
ing near the Pool of Hezekiah and not far from the
Church of the Sepulchre. His Beatitude lives there
with one hundred monks, and I saw many fine-looking
Greek priests as I went up the stairs of rose-coloured
marble. I passed through several rooms filled with
high-capped, black-gowned ecclesiastics, and as I waited
priests and bishops from the four quarters of Greek
Catholicism passed in and out. One of the priests, who
spoke English, went with me into the audience chamber
and gave me a seat at the right of the throne. He asked
me to wait, telling me that the Patriarch would be in
shortly.

Meantime, there were others who had come for an
audience, and the chairs about the long table in the
centre of the room were soon filled. Most of the men
were bearded priests dressed in black gowns and high
caps.

As we waited a servant brought in a silver tray con-
taining a plate of rose-and-white cubes of Turkish delight
and several glasses of water. Upon the tray were many
silver forks, each having two fine tines as long as my
little finger. As the candy was passed each one of us
took a fork and stabbed it into a cube of the sweets,
and thus conveyed it to the mouth. It was delicious.

By and by the Patriarch entered. He talked first
with some of the priests, so I had a good chance to study
him. Imagine a tall, full-bearded, fair-faced man of
middle age dressed in a long black gown and a rimless
black hat which rises eight inches over his forehead.

The gown, which is cut full, falls to his feet. His

103

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

cap is draped with black cloth which covers his shoul-
ders, and about his neck is a long, heavy gold chain to
which hangs an ivory medallion as big as the palm of your
hand. The rim of this medallion is studded with dia-
monds and inside the rim is a painting of the Madonna
with the Holy Child in her arms.

I watched the Patriarch as he talked. He gestured
now and then and I saw that his hands were soft and
his nails well kept. His face changed with the subject
and the man he spoke to. At times he was serious,
again his eyes sparkled with animation, and now and
then he broke into a smile.

My talk with him was through the Greek priest,
who spoke English. I asked His Beatitude about the
condition of the Church. He spoke of many sects of
Christians now in the Holy Land, saying that they
were gradually growing more liberal, and that they
would work more in harmony than they had in the past.

I asked about the life of the priests and whether he
thought it was as pious as that of the hermits who lived
in the second and third centuries after Christ. He
replied that he doubted whether man was as good now
as then, but that the Church was doing what it could to
bring him back to the faith. He said he believed that
the time would come when all mankind would be Chris-
tian, although that time would probably be far in the
future. I was surprised to hear him speak well of the
Protestants and say that all Christian sects would even-
tually unite and work together as one for the salvation
of man.

His Beatitude was much interested in America and at
my request gave me the blessing which he gives to all

104

A TALK WITH THE GREEK PATRIARCH

true believers, saying that I must transmit it to the
American people, each of whom could regard it as being
made especially for him. This blessing was given to
me in a golden frame. The words are printed in Greek
in letters of gold. Literally translated, it reads:

Almighty God., the Father of Mercy and God of Prayer, bless, purify,
and strengthen these Thy disciples who now bow before Thee.

From every wicked work withdraw them, and in every right action
give them Thy aid.

Make all things smooth to each according to his wants. Be with
those travelling upon the water and upon the land. Comfort the poor
and heal the sick.

We praise Thee, Our Father, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the
source of all graciousness and glory.

And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the
Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you. Amen.

Then there was a little more talk about the Greek
Church and a second servant came in with another tray
more elaborate than was the first one. Upon this were
wine glasses filled with a liquor the colour of the dark
moss rose. It was flavoured with peppermint and had
the rich, oily strength of age. Though scarcely more
than three thimblefuls, it brought a pleasant warmth
to the whole frame five minutes after it was drunk, and
the discussion of the doctrines of the Greek Church fell
on my ear like the poetry of Moore.

This refreshment was followed a few moments later by
a third servant who brought in Turkish coffee served in
little cups of fine china, each the size of the smallest
egg cup. The coffee was as thick as Vermont molasses.
It was sweet and delicious and was served without cream.
After coffee is served in Jerusalem the caller can po-

105

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

litely terminate his visit. We sipped the aromatic liquid
and then arose to say good-bye. This we said in Amer-
ican style, shaking hands with "His Blessedness" and
receiving from him a present of a Bethlehem egg. My
egg lies before me as I write. Its ground is the same
red as the coloured eggs of the American Easter, but this
red is covered with etchings and on one side there is a
rude picture of Christ ascending to heaven, with the
cross in the background and with the Virgin Mary hold-
ing up her hands in adoration. On the other side in a
wreath of olive branches is the date.

There is room in Palestine for the Patriarch's hope
that some day the Christian sects will get along better
together than is now the case. The Holy Land often
boils and seethes with the quarrels of the religious fa-
natics. Almost every sacred place in the country is
claimed at the same time by the Greeks, Latins, Armen-
ians, and Copts. Some of the holiest spots are divided
up, and lines are drawn here and there indicating the sect
to which each part belongs. The various denominations
are frequently divided among themselves as to who
shall control the monasteries, convents, and other insti-
tutions belonging to them, and quarrelling even goes on
over the very spot where Christ was born and upon that
where it is supposed the Crucifixion took place.

These quarrels are sometimes serious. Knives have
been drawn and people have been killed in these re-
ligious riots. Some years ago a monk was shot by an
American pilgrim in the Church of the Nativity at
Bethlehem, and more recently a gigantic candle was sent
to Jerusalem addressed to the care of certain priests.
This candle was nine feet high and two feet thick, and as

1 06

A TALK WITH THE GREEK PATRIARCH

far as its outward appearance was concerned seemed to be
entirely of wax. It was shipped in from abroad, and was
intended to be lighted inside the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre and to burn there while the Easter celebrations
were at their height. At that time the church would
have been filled with Greeks, Armenians, Latins, and
Abyssinians. When the candle came to Jaffa, the cus-
toms officers held it for duties, and sent word to the
priests to come and get it. When they failed to appear
it was cut open and five thousand little dynamite balls
were found inside it. Had it exploded at the time of the
ceremonies ten thousand or more people would have been
in danger of losing their lives.

That candle might have been sent by a Greek who was
disgruntled at the Church, and in his desire for revenge
cared not how many he killed. I am told that some of
the factions in the Greek Church have refused to go to
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre until their wrongs are
righted. The Greeks who are natives of Palestine claim
that they have the sole right to the church and church
property. There have already been numerous riots be-
tween these Greeks and the foreign monks, and at one
time the people demanded that the Patriarch of the
Greek Church resign.

The fight among the Greeks is to some extent senti-
mental, but it is also said to be largely one for the loaves
and fishes. The Greeks are the most powerful religious
body in Palestine, and their property runs high into the
millions. Scattered over the Holy Land from Dan to
Beersheba are their monasteries, convents, and hospices,
to all of which pilgrims who travel over the country
make contributions. Some of the places are so valuable

107

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

that the priests in charge are said to pay a lump sum of
a thousand dollars or more a year for the privilege of
presiding at them, expecting to recoup themselves from
the gifts of the pilgrims. Here in Jerusalem there are
thirty-five Greek monasteries and other big buildings
managed by six hundred monks.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the greater part
of which belongs to the Greeks, brings in tens of thousands
of dollars every year to the Church. There are thousands
of Russians who make pilgrimages to this city, and each
is expected to leave an offering according to his wealth
and spiritual desires.

The Greek Church also owns the shops of a bazaar
near the Holy Sepulchre and holds the titles to the
most valuable of the buildings about the Jaffa Gate and
David's Tower, including the Grand New Hotel building.

The native monks say that the Greek priests who have
come in from Constantinople, Athens, Smyrna, the Isle of
Samos, and other places now hold all the fat jobs, and that
they themselves are compelled to work for only a few dol-
lars a month. They do the pastoral work of the villages
and act as the priests of the towns. On the other hand,
the outsiders have amassed fortunes. They pretend to
be hermits and devoted to fasting and prayer, but they
are accused of living luxuriously and of keeping estab-
lishments by no means as good as they should be.

Indeed, the fights among the warring Christians have
sometimes been so bad that the Mohammedan soldiers
here had to use whips to keep them in order. I have
seen Moslem soldiers in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
at Easter time whipping the quarrelling Greeks, Ar-
menians, and Copts in order to separate them. It is not

1 08

Outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, candle sellers, rosary pedlars,
and hawkers of relics trade on the holiness of the Holy City

The Moslem who knows his Koran by heart commands the respect of the
Faithful. In many Mohammedan schools it is the sole textbook

The Palestinians never buy grain by the sack, for they want to see just
how much they are getting. The merchant shakes the full measure, then
heaps up the top with his hands. This is the Biblical "good measure
pressed down, shaken together and running over"

A TALK WITH THE GREEK PATRIARCH ■

an uncommon thing for blood to pollute the Holy Sepul-
chre on festal days.

Conditions are especially bad at Easter time when the
thousands belonging to the different sects go marching
about singing their fanatical songs and denouncing each
other. One of their cries is: "This is the tomb of our
Lord." Another is: "Oh, Jews! Jews! your feasts are
the feasts of pigs."

As they go the Greeks jostle the Armenians and the
Abyssinians bump against the Latins. Not long since
the followers of one sect set fire to some rich hangings
that had been placed in a grotto of the church by the
followers of another sect. The fire spread, the church
was filled with smoke, and it narrowly escaped being
burned.

The Greeks of Palestine claim that they have the
right to all the churches, convents, and monasteries
belonging to their church in the Holy Land. They de-
mand that the money changers, as they call the for-
eign priests, be whipped out of the temple, and that the
gifts of the pilgrims be applied to the building of hos-
pitals, old-age homes, and schools for their children.
This movement is not confined to Jerusalem, but extends
throughout Palestine and has the approval of the best
element of the communities.

Until recent years we have had so few Greek Chris-
tians in the United States that it is hard for us to ap-
preciate what the Greek Church means. It is one of the
strong churches of the world. It has altogether about
one hundred and twenty million members, or one fifth
of all the Christians on earth, and more than two thirds
as many as all the Protestants. I have before me the

109

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

latest statistics of religious denominations. There are
in the world two hundred million Roman Catholics, about
one hundred and sixty million Protestants, one hundred
and twenty million Greek Christians — five hundred thou-
sand who belong to the Church of Abyssinia — and about
seven hundred thousand Armenians. The sum total of
Christians is less than six hundred million, and less than
one third of the population of the world.

On the other hand, there are three hundred and ten
million who worship Confucius, two hundred and fifteen
million Hindus, two hundred and thirty million Mo-
hammedans, and one hundred and forty-seven million
Buddhists.

I 10

CHAPTER XV

AMONG THE MONEY CHANGERS

IF YOU would be cheated out of your eyeteeth, come to
Jerusalem. Its bazaars are filled with tricksters and
traders, and it has its usurers and money changers
as in the days of the Saviour. The people prey upon
the pilgrims and tourists. Their main object is to get
gain, and they work the holiness of the Holy City for all
it is worth. They sell candles which if burnt in the
Church of the Sepulchre will carry away your sins in
their smoke; and rosaries upon which if you count your
prayers you may be sure of their ascending to heaven.

The rosary business is a big factor in Jerusalem The
beads are cut out in great quantities at Bethlehem and
are shipped abroad by the millions. They are sent to
the Holy City for sale, and there are some stores which
have nothing else except perhaps crucifixes and collection
plates.

The merchants who sell rosaries are often great rascals,
I know one, a Bethlehemite, who has just received a les-
son which he is not likely soon to forget. The man's
rosary store is situated down Christian Street, not far
from the place where you turn in to the Church of the
Holy Sepulchre. His lesson came from a Jesuit priest,
who lives in Chicago, and who is just now starting home.
The holy father had come into the shop to buy some
rosaries to carry back to his friends. He had picked out

1 1 1

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

a half-dozen beautiful ones, and had paid the price with-
out bargaining. As the storekeeper wrapped up his
purchase, the priest looked at him out of the tail of his
eye and saw him slip under the counter the rosaries se-
lected and put some cheaper ones in their place. The
Jesuit said nothing, but he took up several beautiful
carvings representing the Crucifixion and Ascension, each
of which was worth about twice as much as the rosaries
he had chosen. Handing these to the man, he told him
to wrap them up. This being done, he took both par-
cels and started out of the store. The Bethlehemite
merchant ran after him, and told him he had not paid
for the carvings. The father replied:

"My friend, I saw you change those rosaries and
give me the cheaper ones, and you may consider this
a judgment of God upon you for cheating. I shall keep
these carvings, and if you do not immediately return to
your store I will report you to the Mohammedan
courts. "

The man, seeing he was caught, let the priest go.

Another large business is the selling of candles. Je-
rusalem is full of shrines, and the pilgrims buy candles to
burn at the holy places. They set them up at the score
or more sacred spots in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
and at the stations along the Via Dolorosa where Christ
walked on His way to Golgotha. They carry them to
the Mount of Olives and to the Garden of Gethsemane.
Some buy several candles for each shrine, and the richer
purchase some of enormous size and many colours. The
candle business is especially brisk at Easter time.

As I have said before, many of the streets are vaulted
over, and we often pass for a half-mile through what

I 12

Bethlehem maids are the prettiest in all Palestine. They bring fresh
vegetables into Jerusalem each day and sell them in the markets

The rosaries sold by the bushel in Jerusalem are made in Bethlehem
of carved olive wood and of mother-of-pearl from the United States.
Besides the thousands sold to tourists quantities are exported every year

AMONG THE MONEY CHANGERS

might be called a subterranean cavern lighted by open-
ings from the top and pierced at the sides with cave-
like stores. The smallest business shops in the world are
in Jerusalem. A great many of the stores are no bigger
than a dry-goods box. They have no windows. I stopped
this afternoon before a shoe repair shop, and, out of
curiosity, took its measurements. It was a hole in the
wall with its bottom edge four feet above the cobble-
stone street. A rude stone two feet high was the step by
which the shoemaker crawled in. It was just three
feet wide, five feet high, and eight feet deep. It was as
dark as a pocket, and the shoemaker squatting in the en-
trance with a board on his lap filled it completely. He
was working at a pair of rough Bedouin shoes the owner
of which sat cross-legged and in his bare feet in the street
outside. As the cobbler waxed his thread he was care-
ful to move his hands toward the street and back into
the shop. The place was so small that had he pulled his
thread in the ordinary way he would have barked his
elbows against the walls.

Next to this shoe shop there was a Jerusalem restau-
rant. It was an oval hole cut into the hill twelve feet
high, eight feet wide, and forty feet deep. At the front
was the cooking stove of Jerusalem, a rude slab of lime-
stone with holes cut in the top as big around as a work-
man's dinner bucket, and with other holes piercing these
from the sides. A few inches from the top of each hole
was a rude iron grating upon which the charcoal was
laid. The draft which came in from below kept the fire
going. The slab was mounted on cord-wood posts and
had five fireplaces. At the back a rough table without
a cloth was set for the guests. The only chairs were lit-

113

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

tie stools a foot high and about a foot square the seats
of which were of woven cords.

Each kind of business, or trade, has its own bazaar.
There is a shoemaker's bazaar where scores of cobblers
are working. At the entrance to each cavelike shop two
shoemakers sit sewing away with untanned calfskin
aprons tight about them. Between them on a block of
wood, an olive tree stump it may be, rests a slab of white
marble. This is the shoemakers' bench, upon which they
pound the wet leather to make it soft with what looks
like a brass paper weight. It is as big around as a tum-
bler and of about the same height, tapering from the top
to the bottom.

The shoes are all made with needle and thread. The
soles are of camel hide and the uppers of kidskin or goat-
skin. These are the common shoes of the peasant. As
I watched the cobblers I asked about their wages and was
told they received from forty to sixty cents for labouring
from sunrise to sunset.

In another street tinsmiths are at work making pots and
pans out of oil cans. Their shops are not much bigger
than cupboards, and the workmen are long-bearded men
in fez caps and gowns.

Farther on is the grain market, consisting of many great
vaulted chambers one or more of which belongs to each
merchant. The vaults are filled with piles of wheat,
corn, barley, oats, and millet spread out on the floor. The
grain is sold by measure. I saw a Bedouin come in to
buy two bushels of oats. It was dipped out by the peck,
the merchant shaking the measure to make the grain
solid, and then heaping up the top with his hands so
that the oats formed a cone. This was the "good measure

114

AMONG THE MONEY CHANGERS

pressed down, shaken together, and running over,'' as
mentioned in St. Luke. The people here never buy grain
by the sack, for they want to see it measured out before
their eyes. But I am told that the grain sellers are some-
times able to impose upon those who purchase, making
them think they get more than they really do.

Much of the grain of the Holy City is ground at home
and a great deal of that of Palestine is made into flour with
hand mills. Some flour is imported and some is ground
in mills worked by camels or donkeys. In baking bread
the dough is kneaded at home and brought in great
lumps to the public ovens to be found in almost every
street. They are cave-like vaults running down below
the street level. At the back of each vault is the oven
with a sort of well before its open door. In the well
stands the baker with a long paddle in his hand upon
which he puts in and takes out the loaves. I have seen
many bakeries of this kind. The fuel is olive wood, and
the oven floor is marked out in blocks, so that the bak-
ing of each family may be put on a separate block. The
loaves are about an inch thick and the size of a tea plate.
Each has a hole in the centre. The baker gets a few cents
for each half-dozen loaves, or he may instead take a toll
of one loaf for each dozen. Before starting the baking
he greases the floor of the oven with olive oil.

The reason for these public bakeries is the great cost
of fuel. The Arabs have a proverb showing that such
baking is the cheapest. This runs: "Send your bread
to the oven of the baker even though he should eat the
half of it."

I frequently see boys carrying dough to these bakeries,
or bringing bread home from them. They use trays

115

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

which they bear on their heads. Ancient Jerusalem had
its Bakers' Street, for we read that King Zedekiah put
the prophet Jeremiah into the court of the prison and
commanded that they "should give him daily a piece of
bread out of the Bakers' Street."

During my stay in Jerusalem I have enjoyed the salad
which is served at the hotel with an olive oil dressing.
This is a land of olives and the oil is delicious. It is as
clear as honey with a tint like the green of chartreuse.
I say I have enjoyed it, but I doubt whether I shall en-
joy it hereafter. Why? I have seen how it is made.

Come with me to an oil mill which is kept in a cave
just off David Street, not more than a stone's throw
from the Pool of Hezekiah. At the side of the door there
is a stone ledge. In the centre of this is a hole as big
around as a flour barrel in which, with his clothes tied
up about his waist, with bare legs and bare feet, stands a
sweating Ethiopian treading the oil out of the ground
olives. Peeping over into the well in which he is stand-
ing, we see that he has a linen cloth laid on the top of
the mushy mixture. He tramps this cloth into the
olives with his feet and taking it up wet, wrings out the
oil into a red clay basin from whence it is poured into
pots to be strained for the market.

Farther back stand a camel and a very small, knotty
little donkey munching away while the mill is not go-
ing. These animals grind up the olives, and in another
cave opening into this we can see the mill itself. It is
much like a horsepower grist mill, or the bark mill of a
country tannery, and the camel and donkey walk round
and round in a circle hitched to a bar which turns the
mill. Their food is a brown cake made from what is

116

During the day the low cavelike shop of the Jerusalem shoemaker opens
directly upon the street. At night it is closed by two swinging doors on
rude hinges

Christ's happiest hours were spent with his friends at Bethany, the
village where He lived when He was teaching in Jerusalem near by. Here
the "tomb of Lazarus" and the "house of Martha and Mary" are pointed
out to the traveller

AMONG THE MONEY CHANGERS

left of the olives after the oil has been pressed out of
them.

But let us go to market at the Jaffa Gate and see what
the people have brought in from the country for sale.
There are scores of women with baskets of vegetables
before them. They have lettuce and eggplants and beau-
tiful cauliflowers with heads as white as snow. They
have lemons and oranges from Jaffa and apples and
pears from the highlands of Judea. Many of the sellers
are Bethlehem girls. Here are people selling beads, al-
though most of the bead sellers are about the Church of
the Holy Sepulchre. Many of the beads are of glass and
come from Hebron, not far from the cave which is Abra-
ham's tomb. Hebron is the chief town of south Pales-
tine and is a manufacturing centre. It makes lamps
and bottles as well as glass trinkets and glass beads,
which are sold all over the Holy Land.

The cock which reminded St. Peter of his denial of
his Master has many descendants. You may see some
of them in this market, tied by the legs and lying on the
stones. The Holy City has no ordinance against crowing
cocks, and nearly every family here keeps its own rooster.
There are so many that the city resounds with their music,
and about daybreak they start up a concert which mur-
ders sleep. I am living in the heart of Jerusalem — I
might as well be in a barnyard. The rooster symphony
begins with sunrise and keeps on until evening, and then
the donkeys and camels take up the strain. The donkeys
bray louder than did Balaam's ass, and the camels whine
and grumble all night. In addition to these noises, there
are others which trouble the tourists. The people rise
with the chickens and the stone streets reecho their

117

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

steps. The birds sing and the pedlars shout. At the
same time the bells begin ringing to show that it is day,
and the trumpets of the soldiers in David's Tower add
to the din. One can easily sleep in a railroad depot or
near a boiler factory, for the noises there are of one or
two kinds and the ear comes to know them. Here there
is a new sound every minute.

118

CHAPTER XVI

EXCAVATING OLD JERICHO

TO-DAY I have walked through streets which were
probably thronged when Moses and the Israelites
were wandering in the Wilderness, and have
tramped up and down staircases of clay built
hundreds of years before Christ was born. I have been
in the ruins of old Jericho, the city Joshua captured over
three thousand years ago, now brought to light again by
modern excavations.

The place is only about fourteen miles from Jerusalem
as the crow flies. It lies on a little plateau, just under
the mountain upon which it is said our Lord was tempted
by the devil and promised the world. It is about three
miles from the present town of Jericho, where I am
stopping, and within easy access of it.

The excavations at Jericho are the work of the Aus-
trian Ministry of Education. When they dug into what
seemed only mounds of earth the remains of a great
fortified city were found. This city was undoubtedly the
Jericho of Canaan. It lies on a height surrounded by
great walls some of which are of stone. It has inner
walls and a citadel and was flanked with strong towers.
The heart of the city is about twelve hundred feet long
and five hundred and twenty-five feet wide.

Many of the houses have been unearthed. In one of
them, which is supposed to have been built twenty-

119

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

seven hundred years ago, there was found an uncovered
courtyard. The house seems to have been abandoned
during a fire, and for some reason or other is better
preserved than most of the others. It contained a red
sandstone mill for grinding meal and water vessels of
various shapes. It had plates and jugs as well as lamps
and iron vessels with handles of deer horn.

In going through the ruins I crunched over bushels of
pottery broken in pieces. I saw water jars chipped and
cracked. Each had a clay stopper as big as a tomato
with a hole through the centre. There are hundreds of
these stoppers lying on the ground. There are also stone
mortars which were used for grinding grain, and the re-
mains of amphorae, or huge jars with necks and side
handles, which were buried in the earth and used to hold
wine or grain. Most of the pottery is covered with a
white glaze, and some of it has vertical stripes of yellow
painted upon it.

In the buildings the stone walls are constructed without
angles, the cracks being filled in with smaller stones. I
am told that the work was done with tools of bronze, and
that some of it dates back before history. The centre of
the city is on an egg-shaped plateau just above the plain
of the Jordan.

It is difficult in wandering through these ruins of mud,
brick, and rough stone to realize that here was once a
magnificent city. The Jericho of Joshua's day was not
magnificent in our sense of the word, although it covered
a large area and had a great many people. There are
no remnants of great marble columns, and it is said that
Jericho had disappeared long before Christ came and that
another city had taken its place situated in this same

120

EXCAVATING OLD JERICHO

Jordan Valley. The Jericho of Christ had a theatre, a
circus, and a university. It ranked with Jerusalem as
one of the important places in Palestine. Surrounded by
irrigated gardens, it was known as the City of Palms. It
had grown up in Roman times, and Mark Antony thought
so much of it that he gave it as a present to Cleopatra,
who collected quite a revenue from the balsam groves
near by, which furnished the gum of commerce. Cotton
was raised here at that time, and this region was then a
winter resort for Jerusalem. Herod the Great had pal-
aces in Jericho. It is said that he died here, although
he was buried near Hebron. We know that our Saviour
came to Jericho, and here He healed the blind. He did
not stay in the city, but dwelt outside in the house of
Zaccheus, who was a collector of taxes for the Roman
Government and therefore not popular with the Jews.
I refer to Zaccheus the dwarf. He was so short that
he feared he would not be able to see the Christ over
the heads of the crowd and, as you remember from the
verse in the old primer:

Zaccheus he did climb a tree
His Lord to see.

The ruins I have been exploring represent not the city
of Christ's time, but that of the day of Joshua and Rahab.
You remember Rahab, the fair lady, not so good as she
should have been, who lived upon the walls of Jericho,
and who hid Joshua's spies under the stalks of flax she
had stored up on her roof. She told them of the terror
which prevailed in the city over the expected attack of
Joshua, and made them promise to save her when Jericho
was taken. The spies arranged with her that she should tie

121

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

some red thread to the bars of her window so that her
house might be spared. She then let them down by a
cord through the window, and they escaped and reported
to Joshua. That was a good day's work for Rahab. The
promise of the spies was carried out by the Israelites.
Moreover, she married one of the princes of Judah, a
man named Salmon, and thereby became one of the
most famous women of the ancestral tree of the Israel-
ites. She was the mother of Boaz, the husband of Ruth,
and King David was one of her great-great-grandchil-
dren. On the next step of her genealogical ladder we find
King Solomon, while away down the centuries later comes
the name of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and of the
family of Christ. In the first chapter of Matthew are
given the generations from Abraham to the birth of our
Saviour, in which are mentioned the names of only four
women: Thamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, who
had been the wife of Uriah and became the mother of
Solomon.

Right under old Jericho is the fountain of Elisha which
the prophet made sweet by throwing salt into it. It is
not far from the spot where he was mocked by the chil-
dren who cried after him: "Go up, thou bald head/'
Thereupon, say the Scriptures, the prophet turned and
"cursed them in the name of the Lord. And there came
forth two she bears out of the woods and tare forty and
two children of them."

It is said that the place where Elijah was carried up in
a whirlwind to heaven was not far from Jericho, and on
my way down here from Jerusalem I saw the cave in
which the prophet is supposed to have been fed by
ravens. It is in the Wady Kelt, a great dry rocky can-

122

EXCAVATING OLD JERICHO

yon with high walls. The cave is half way up the side
of the gorge and partly hidden by the monastery which
the Greeks have built there.

But let me tell you how I came down to Jericho. The
way from Jerusalem is through the wilderness of Judea,
over one of the roughest and stoniest lands of the world.
There is but little green to be seen and the glare is in-
tense. The dust of the limestone and chalk road is so
thick that it gets into eyes, mouth, and nostrils. This
road, which is the chief highway from the Jordan to the
Holy City, is travelled by thousands. The traffic was
even greater in the time of Christ, for the Jordan Valley
was then covered with irrigated farms and the rich men
of Jerusalem had their winter homes there.

I left Jerusalem in a carriage, going out through the
Damascus Gate, crossing the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and
skirting the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the
Mount of Olives.

My carriage was an easy victoria drawn by three
Arabian horses, and the coachman was a Syrian Jehu
with hair as red and a face as fair as my own. I had a
a soldier with me to keep off the robbers. He was fur-
nished by the government of Jerusalem at a cost of three
dollars and was under the direct command of the sheik
here at Jericho. This soldier carried a gun and sword,
and went ahead, nominally to clear the road. Every
party I met on the way, including a company of hunters
from Jerusalem on their way for game in the lands be-
yond the Jordan, had an escort of soldiers.

I stopped at Bethany to look at Lazarus's tomb, and
was reminded of how Mark Twain said that he would
" rather sleep in the tomb than in any other house in the

123

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

place/' The Bethany of to-day is a dirty, ragged village
of forty or fifty stone huts inhabited by perhaps three
hundred people. The houses stand on the side of a hill,
rising one over the other. The people are small farmers
who cultivate patches of stony land and little orchards of
olives and figs. They have cows and make butter for
Jerusalem. They are all Mohammedans, and their chil-
dren call out for baksheesh.

Entering the town, I took a look at the tomb. It is
a sort of cavern cut out of limestone and entered by
steep steps. It belongs to the Franciscan monks, who
often say mass there.

The house of Mary and Martha, where Christ stopped,
is said to have been in an inclosure now full of brambles
and wild cactus. There is no building left, although the
guides point out a pile of stones which they say was
once a part of the wall.

On the way to Bethany I was shown the site of the
fig tree which was cursed by the Saviour and thereafter
never bore fruit. There are many fig trees about, and
orchards of them are to be found in most parts of
the Holy Land. It was on the road to Bethany that
Christ is said to have mounted the colt which carried
him on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm
Sunday.

Shortly after I left Bethany I saw a curious sight by
the roadside. This was a man leaning backward over a
great gray boulder and rubbing himself violently upon it.
There were some stones on top of the rock and I ob-
served that the man added another stone to the pile
and that he kissed the rock as he left. I asked my
guide the secret of his actions. He replied: "That stone

124

Tradition says that by a miracle the prophet Elisha purified the waters
of this fountain. Excavations on the hillside above have uncovered the
foundations of the old city walls of Jericho, over which Rahob let down
the two spies of Joshua

At the Tomb of Lazarus there are always natives waiting to be photo-
graphed— for backsheesh

His back hurts him, and he is rubbing it against the healing stone on the
way to Jordan, believing this will work a cure

EXCAVATING OLD JERICHO

is called the Father of Rocks, and it is said to be a sure
cure for backache. The people here think that any one
so afflicted will be cured if he can rub his sore back
against it."

A little farther on I stopped for a bottle of ginger pop
and a cracker at the Good Samaritan Inn, which stands
on the traditional site where lay the man who fell among
thieves when the priest and the Levite passed him by
on the other side. It is right on the road about half
way between Jerusalem and Jericho. There was a crowd
in the inn while I waited, among them a Syrian peasant
who had been robbed by a party of Bedouins. The man
was covered with wounds, and was crying and sobbing
as he told how he had been attacked and robbed of the
money which he had just received from the sale of some
sheep. Much of this country is unsafe, and no one who
has money dares travel alone. All the way to the Jor-
dan I met little caravans on their way to Jerusalem. In
every party there were some men with guns on their
backs. The guns were often old-fashioned flintlock
muskets. I passed some donkey trains taking bags of
charcoal from beyond the Jordan, and a caravan of
camels each of which bore two great bags of wheat slung
over his back. The drivers of both donkeys and camels
were armed. They had come from the land of Moab,
and were now going up through Judea.

Before starting on my way to the Jordan I spent sev-
eral hours on the Mount of Olives. This mountain is
two hundred feet higher than the hills upon which Je-
rusalem stands. It is directly opposite the city, being
separated from it by the Valley of Jehoshaphat or Kedron,
and it can be easily reached. There are good roads up

125

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

the Mount of Olives, and one can now ride to most of
the holy places.

With the prosperity which is coming to Palestine the
Mount of Olives is rapidly changing. Its slopes are cul-
tivated, the rocks are being picked up and laid in stone
fences, and the cleared spots planted to crops and to
orchards. There were many olive orchards on this
mount in the days of the Saviour, who came here fre-
quently to get away from the crowds of the city. The
soil seems fertile, and the crops upon the mountain grow
luxuriantly. There are green patches of wheat, barley,
and oats, while here and there are carob trees, with pods
like those which furnished the food for the prodigal son
when he ate with the swine.

The Mount of Olives is now spotted with churches and
chapels. It has monasteries and convents, a great Rus-
sian church, and several hospices, including the huge sani-
tarium built in honour of Augusta, Empress of Germany.
One of the most interesting of these institutions is a
Carmelite nunnery, which has been erected over the
spot where tradition says Christ taught the Lord's Prayer
to His disciples. The church here is called "The Church
of the Lord's Prayer," and has in its court tablets in-
scribed with the prayer in thirty-two different languages.
I visited the chapel of the nunnery, where prayers go
up every day and night and every hour of the day all
the year through. The nuns so divide their time that
one is always praying. They kneel behind a screen and
are not to be seen by visitors. This church is one of
the quietest and most solemn of all in the Holy Land.
After the noisy scenes which take place about the Holy
Sepulchre it is a relief.

126

EXCAVATING OLD JERICHO

The Carmelite nuns are devout. They do not go out
of the nunnery except it be absolutely necessary. ' Even
when they walk in its garden they wear such heavy veils
that they have to hold them out from their faces to see
where they are going. My guide tells me that each nun
digs her own grave, and that when she is about to die
she is dressed in her shroud and carried into the church
in order that she may pass away there.

In the floor of the Chapel of the Ascension near the
nunnery is a spot which looks like a footprint, and is
said to be the place where the foot of the Saviour rested
before He ascended to heaven. The chapel belongs to the
Mohammedans and is let out at times to the Christians.
But to me the Garden of Gethsemane was more interest-
ing. It lies at the foot of the Mount of Olives, just off
the Jericho road. It is surrounded by a wall of yellow
limestone twelve feet high and about four feet thick.
On the outside of it, in the shade of the wall, sat a score
of lepers who held out their hands for alms as we passed.
They were dirty and filthy and their disease had made
them repulsive sights. Some had no fingers, some no
noses, and one held out a tin can tied to the stump of
her wrist from which the hand had dropped off.

The garden goes up the side of the mountain. It is
almost square and does not cover two acres. It is cut
up into flower beds bordered by inverted beer and wine
bottles. There are eight old olive trees, pansies of all
shades of the rainbow, and many beautiful flowers, as
well as dark cypress trees. The garden belongs to the
Franciscan monks who opened the gate at our knock.
The gate is a mere hole in the wall, so low that all
who enter must stoop. It is closed by an iron door,

127

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

with a round black bar of iron, ten inches long, as a
knocker.

Just back of the entrance to the garden is a ledge of
limestone where the disciples are said to have slept during
the night of the agony, and perhaps one hundred feet
farther away stands a column which tradition says marks
the spot where Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss. Both
of these places have been worn smooth by the lips of
thousands of pilgrims.

128

The source of the Jordan at Banias is one of the largest springs in the
world. The Jordan is rightly named the "down-comer," for in its wind-
ing course of two hundred and forty miles it drops from the mountains
to the Dead Sea, nearly thirteen hundred feet below sea-level

We need an escort for the trip over the barren wastes to the River
Jordan, for Bedouin brigands still occasionally relieve the unwary tour-
ist of his valuables

CHAPTER XVII

THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN

THE Jordan! How shall I make you see it as it
winds its way through this great gash in the
thirsty face of old Mother Earth?
All day long I have been travelling upon its
banks in the lower part of its course. I have visited the
ford where Joshua crossed with his army of Jews when
he took possession of Canaan; have stood on the spot
where it is said that Jesus was baptized of John, and have
gone over the place where the waters were parted by the
cloak of Elijah. Here at Jericho I am within a short
gallop of the Dead Sea, into which the Jordan flows, and
sitting on the steps of my hotel I can see Mount Nebo,
where Moses stood when he viewed the Promised Land,
which he was not to enter. In former travels I have
seen the Jordan, near the Sea of Galilee, and have been
not far from its source in the Lebanon Mountains.

The Jordan Valley is the cellar of the world. It is a
great trench, which begins a thousand or more feet above
the sea in the Lebanon Mountains, and within a distance
of one hundred and sixty miles, as the crow flies, cuts its
way down to thirteen hundred feet below sea level, where
it ends in the Dead Sea. The bottom of that sea is
a half mile below the surface of the Mediterannean, and
in Jericho, where I am writing, we are almost four thou-
sand feet below the highest point in Jerusalem. There is

129

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

no other part of the earth uncovered by water where for
an equal distance the land is sunken even two hundred
feet below the level of the ocean. This is the strangest
trough of the world. Though often associated with the
idea of going to heaven, the Valley of the Jordan is em-
blematic of hell. Most of it is as parched as the dry sands
of the Sahara, and just now its heat is as torrid as Tophet.
The plain over which I rode to-day on my way to the
river was covered with thorn bushes. The only green I
saw after leaving the irrigated farms about Jericho was
that bordering the gully through which the Jordan
runs. For the rest, the alkaline earth cut up by the
floods into castles and mounds, makes bare gullies and
hills of all sizes and shapes.

The mean temperature of Jerusalem, only fourteen
miles away, is 640 Fahrenheit. It is temperate through-
out the year and snow falls there in the winter. The
heat here is as great as that of the centre of Nubia. For
six months in the year the mean temperature in the
Jordan Valley averages ioo° Fahrenheit.

But this is not the character of the whole course of the
Jordan. Let me give you a bird's-eye view of the river,
or, better, let us suppose we have taken an aeroplane and
are going from its source in the Lebanon Mountains to
where it loses itself in the great sea of salt below here.
It rises on the foot of Mount Hermon, whose peak is
covered with snow the greater part of the year. It has
two or three different sources. One is near Dan, and
higher up is another at Banias, near the spot where Christ
said: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my
Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

It is at Banias that the Jordan has its chief source. It

130

THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN

comes from a cave in the limestone rock which is now
choked up with stones, but out of which the water flows
in a great volume, cold, sweet, and pure. There are trees
about the cave and the stream runs through a beautiful
park down to Lake Huleh, which is only seven feet above
the sea. The spring of Banias has always been noted for
its sweetness and purity. It is said the waters and cave
were formerly dedicated to the god Pan, and that from
him came the name Banias, or Panias. Greek tablets
have been found near by, and ruined temples and columns
show that the place was once the site of a considerable
city. It has now only a mud village of about fifty huts.

Flying down to Lake Huleh, we see a marshy catch
basin into which run other streams and from which the
Jordan flows out. There is little activity about the lake.
Near it live a few Bedouins whose only business seems to
be making mats of the papyrus reeds growing on the
shores. These are the waters of Merom beside which
Joshua and his men of war battled with the Canaanites
for the Promised Land.

A little farther down is the main crossing to Damascus.
The place is known as the Bridge of Jacob's Daughters,
and the stream is here on the level of the sea. It drops
six hundred and eighty feet in the next nine miles, falling
in a series of twenty-seven cascades.

The remainder of the Jordan's course runs between the
seas of life and death. I refer to the Sea of Galilee at
the north and the Dead Sea at the south. The first,
though somewhat brackish, is full of fish and surrounded
by verdure. The other is saltier than any other water on
earth, and so bitter and poisonous that no living thing can
exist within it. The distance between these two seas in a

131

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

straight line north and south is about sixty-five miles, and
the slope from one to the other is almost twelve feet to
the mile, or over six hundred and sixty feet. Connecting
them is this great trough of the Jordan, from one to six-
teen miles wide. Through it flows the sacred river,
twisting about like a corkscrew, and making so many
turnings that it flows more than two hundred miles in an
airline distance of only sixty miles. It runs with great
force and there are numerous falls where electric plants
might be put in. The land on each side might be turned
into rich farms if it could only have water, and it may be
that the good fairy of electricity will some time bring
the dead earth to life.

There are some farms in the upper part of the course
of the Jordan and there is a sugar plantation half way
between Galilee and the Dead Sea, where soldiers work
as labourers. There are small fields of grain, including
millet, wheat, and barley here and there, and I am told
that rice and indigo can be grown.

Down near the Dead Sea there is considerable culti-
vation on the Jericho plain. The land is irrigated by a
stream from the mountains of Judea and by the spring
of Elisha. It is cut up into small patches covered with
orange groves, almond orchards, and vineyards. Much
of the fruit goes up to Jerusalem. There are also fields
of eggplants, tomatoes, and melons, and dates could
undoubtedly be grown. All the way from here to old
Jericho, a distance of about three miles, are orchards,
vineyards, and gardens. They are fenced with thorn
bushes, the thorns on which are great hooks turning in-
ward. They are said to be the same thorns as those of
which the crown of our Saviour was made.

132

A thick mist always hangs over the weird waters of the Dead Sea, while
intense heat and insect pests make its shores almost intolerable

The current is swift in this place and we hire a fisherman to take us
across the Jordan. Under Turkish rule the river was considered the
personal property of the Sultan, who allowed no pleasure craft upon it

Bethlehem is a maze of narrow, winding streets, lined with box-like
houses having flat grass-grown roofs and overhanging windows. Here
Rachel died and was buried; here dwelt Ruth and Boaz, and here were
born David and the Saviour

THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN

The Jordan is not navigable. Along its whole course
it has no wharves, no boats, and no cities or villages of
any account. It has numerous fords but no bridges of
any size. The wooden bridge about six miles above the
Dead Sea is a toll bridge, with fords above and below it.
The people use it only when the river is high. At other
times the caravans save the toll by passing through the
fords.

On its course from Galilee to the Dead Sea the river
narrows and widens. Now it is a swift, black, sullen
current flowing between ugly mud banks covered with
refuse, now it comes close to the mountains which border
the valley on either side, and down here at the Dead Sea
it reaches a width of five hundred feet, being so shallow
that you could almost wade across it.

The water gathers the denudations of the mountains.
It changes in colour from season to season, and in the
spring spreads out in floods over the valley. It is said
that the parting of the water in order that Joshua and
the Israelites might pass over was when the river was
at its highest.

At this point in its course it is not a sweet water. It
has gathered the salts from this arid country and is so
full of organic matter that those who carry it home for
baptisms have to boil and filter it to get rid of its dis-
agreeable smell. I have several canteens which I filled
myself from the stream, or rather with the water which I
brought in wine bottles from the Jordan and had boiled
and filtered before it was put into the cans. If I ever
have a grandchild it shall be baptized with this water.
I bought the canteens at the Jordan Hotel here at Jericho
where they are kept on hand to be sold to the tourists

133

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

and pilgrims. A vast number of them are carried away
every year.

Let us go from Jericho to the land where the Moabites
live on the other side of the river. It is only a few miles
away, and we can drive there in a carriage. As we start,
the great white blazing sun is climbing the blue above
Mount Nebo, and the faint streak of the Dead Sea, with
the haze that hangs always over it, can be seen down the
valley. Our soldier gallops in front to scare off the Bed-
ouins and we wind our way lazily in and out through the
wheat fields. Leaving these we enter a desert on the
edge of which stands Gilgal, where the Israelites first en-
camped after crossing the Jordan, and then go on through
thorny scrub among gullies and hills until we approach
the long fringes of thicket which border the river. There
is more vegetation as we near this, and we go through
the bushes until we come to a creek no wider than a city
street. It looks like some of the small streams of our
central states. I know many such in Indiana, Illinois,
and Ohio, and there is one of just about the same size
which goes by the name of Goose Creek in Loudoun
County, Virginia. The Rhine and the Hudson, the Po-
tomac, or even the Shenandoah, could swallow the Jordan
without bulging, and just now it is so small that in the
United States it would not be called a river at all.

Nevertheless, the current is swift at this place and we
hire a fisherman to take us across. He charges twenty-
five cents for the boat, and for this rows us up and down
stream for an hour. He stands up as he rows and leans
on the oars. We go to the other side of the Jordan and
climb out through the willows. How quiet it is! The
only sounds are the ripple of the stream as it washes the

134

THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN

banks and the songs of sweet-voiced birds in the trees at
our left. As we return we lean over and bathe our hands
in the Jordan. The water is cold. When taken up in a
bottle it looks like weak milk. We taste it. It is acrid
and salty and we spit it out in disgust.

Here Christ is said to have been baptized of John. At
this place, which is about three miles from the Dead Sea,
the water at ordinary times is four or five feet deep. Most
of the pilgrims come here, and it is the scene of tens of
thousands of baptisms a year. The chief time of baptiz-
ing is Easter, when the Russians come by the thousands
and when other members of the Greek Church unite with
them in a great caravan which journeys here and camps.

Leaving the Jordan we make our way down the valley
to the Dead Sea. The road goes through the thorn
bushes and twists about through the barren hills. The
land is salty and alkaline and all nature is dead. How
hot the sun is, and how glaring! Our eyes smart, and
horrid flies crawl with legs of glue over our faces. We
try to brush them off but they alight and bite us again.

Now we are on the shore of the sea, which is covered
with pebbles and driftwood. It looks more like a lake
than a sea, and is just about the size of Lake Geneva in
Switzerland. It is only fifty miles long and ten miles in
width and we can see from one side of it to the other.

The Dead Sea lies between stony mountains. On the
east are the desert hills of Moab, where Ruth was born
and Moses is buried, and on the west lie those of Judea
where the children of Israel came after Moses had pointed
out to them the Promised Land. There are openings at
the north and south, and away at the southwest are works
for evaporating the water to make salt.

135

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

The Dead Sea has no outlet. The water evaporates
so fast that it is usually misty here. It is estimated that
over six million tons of water flow into it daily. Never-
theless, its level changes only a little throughout the year,
and that at the times of the flood.

Now dip up some of the water in your hand and taste
it. It burns your tongue and your lips. It is as bitter
as gall. If you drank a glass of it you would probably
die. It is the saltiest water on earth. If you will take
a gallon and boil it down, you will find that one fourth of
the contents is solid. It is six times as salty as the water
of the ocean, and a cubic mile of it would contain nine
hundred million tons of mineral matter. The sum is so
staggering that you cannot comprehend it, but at ninety
tons to the car it would take ten million cars to carry that
much, and if your cars were a little under forty feet long
the train required for the load would reach eighty miles.
There is asphalt or pitch in the bottom of the lake and
the water has other minerals in addition to salt. Indeed,
the salt proper left after boiling comprises only about
7 per cent, of the whole.

If you would further test the water, take an egg and
drop it into the sea. It will float, leaving one third of
the egg above the surface. A fresh egg will sink in fresh
water, and we break our egg to be sure it is fresh.

Another test. Let us strip off our clothing and go in
for a swim. You do not know how to swim? That
makes no difference in this salty sea. The water is so
heavy you could not sink if you tried. You can lie on
your back and float all day long. You can stand upright
and tread, but it is almost impossible to maintain such a
position. Your feet have a tendency to fly to the sur-

.36

THE DEAD SEA AND THE JORDAN

face, and you bob up and down like "the monkey on the
stick." Now try to swim. Your feet fly out of the water
and you cannot make any headway. Now let us wade
out and let the sun dry our skins. We feel as if we had
been painted with mucilage. We are gummy and oily
and incrusted with salt. We were scratched as we came
through the thorn bushes and the salt got into the wounds
and they are burning like fire. We shall not be happy
until we can get some fresh water to wash off the salt.

An interesting thing about the Dead Sea is the fact
that on its shores were the sites of the ancient Sodom and
Gomorrah, the two towns which became so wicked that
the Lord rained fire and brimstone upon them. There are
said to be sulphur springs in the country about, and it
may have been a volcano which caused the destruction.

It was right here on the plain of the Jordan that the
nephew of Abraham and the cousin of Ishmael and Isaac,
the good man Lot, had his estate. It was in Sodom that
he lived, one of the richest of its citizens, and the only
just man in the city. From there he went out with Mrs.
Lot and the two girls. And it is said to be at the south-
west end of the lake, not far away, that Madame Lot
turned and looked back and, as we may suppose, longed
for the fleshpots. And lo! she became a pillar of salt.
There are still deposits of rock-salt at that end of the
lake, and the guides now show the remains of a pillar
which they say was once Mrs. Lot, but which has been
licked by the camels until it has almost disappeared.

137

CHAPTER XVIII

BETHLEHEM

DURING my several trips to Palestine I have
visited Bethlehem, where our Saviour was born,
and have lived for days in Nazareth, where His
boyhood was spent. I have gone over much
of the road Joseph and Mary followed when they car-
ried the child into Egypt, and have crossed the moun-
tains of Samaria from Galilee to Jerusalem, where He
went as a boy of twelve and was found teaching the doc-
trine in Solomon's Temple.

I have even climbed the hills and gone into the wilder-
ness where our Lord was tempted of the devil after those
forty days of hunger and thirst. At Capernaum I saw
the recently excavated marble synagogue where some of
His first preaching was done. I have climbed to the top
of the hill above the Sea of Galilee, where He delivered
the Sermon on the Mount, and have picked flowers from
the rolling green sward below, where the miracle of the
loaves and fishes was performed. Not far from that place,
on the opposite shore, may be seen a steep hill down which
rushed the swine possessed of the devils our Saviour had
cast out of the Gadarene man. I have been in Bethany,
where lived Mary and Martha, and have sat under the
trees in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Many of these places are about the same as they were
when our Saviour was alive. Some have been covered

138

BETHLEHEM

with churches and convents, but the warring sects of
Christians have not been able to change the bright sky.
Nature is the same now as it was then. The same flow-
ers bloom and the same birds sing. Besides, it is not so
long, after all, since Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The
average lifetime of a man is not much more than was that
of our Saviour. He lived thirty-three years. It would
take only fifty-eight such lifetimes to cover the period
between now and the birth of Christ. Each of us has a
relative who is, perhaps, sixty-five years old. The lives
of thirty such men would, if joined together, reach back
to the days of King Herod.

We shall take carriages for our trip from Jerusalem to
Bethlehem. We start at the Jaffa Gate, next David's
Tower, on the top of Mount Zion, near where, it is
claimed, the Crucifixion took place. The gate was widened
by the breach in the wall made in honour of Kaiser Wil-
helm of Germany, so all sorts of vehicles can now go
through it. As we leave the gate we pass coffee houses
where people of a dozen different nationalities are drink-
ing, go by the railroad station, where a puffing loco-
motive is just in from the Mediterranean, skirt the valley
of Hinnom, in which is the Pool of Gihon, where David
was anointed, and a little later on stop near the village
where King Saul was crowned.

The road is excellent. It is of hard limestone walled on
each side by limestone fences and backed by green fields
now covered with the dust of the highway. The traffic
is constant, so that the air is white with dust. It fills
our eyes, mouths, and nostrils, and makes us look like
millers. We cover our eyes with smoked glasses to keep
out the glare. The road is dazzling white, the fences are

139

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

white, a white dust covers the green of the fields. As
we are going toward the south, the sun is full in our
faces. It is hot, although a cold wind is blowing over
these hills of Judea which whirls the dust around and
sends columns of it into the air.

Soon after leaving Jerusalem we cross a depression
carpeted with green, which is known as the Valley of
Roses. Farther on are olive groves, and as we near Beth-
lehem there are great fields of green. At the left we can
see the plain where the young widow Ruth garnered
wheat for old Boaz and thus got food and a husband.

All the way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem crops are grow-
ing. There are signs of increased cultivation, and every
bit of available land is being set out in orchards and
gardens. I went over the same road twenty-odd years
ago. Then the country was bare rocks with bits of grass
here and there. To-day the land is divided into fields.
The surface rocks have been gathered together and laid
up in fences as high as my head. The cleared land is
now planted in wheat, corn, and barley. New olive
orchards are rising, while many of the old ones still
stand. The trunks of the old trees are knotted and
gnarled, but the leaves are of green dusted with silver,
and I am told they still bear fruit. I photographed one
tree not more than thirty feet high which had a trunk
as thick as a hogshead and branches which shaded a large
tract of ground. The soil of Palestine is as fertile to-day
as it was when Joshua led the Israelites across it, and
barring the fences, I doubt not the landscape is about
the same now as it was when Christ was born.

Every bit of the way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem is
historic ground. Over this same road Abraham travelled

140

Young women in Bethlehem proudly wear their dowries— necklaces
and fillets of coins, and beautifully embroidered shawls, which may mean
over a year of painstaking needlework

BETHLEHEM

to Mount Moriah. Along it came the Wise Men. of the
East following the Star on their way to the stable where
Jesus was born. They had called upon crafty King
Herod at Jerusalem to ask about the King of the Jews.
He had told them to find where He was born, that he
might come and worship Him. The road goes by a well
where it is said these Wise Men stopped to drink. It is
known as the "Well of the Magi," and is near an olive
grove on the east side of the road. It is covered with a
marble slab as big around as a cart wheel with a hole
cut in the centre through which the water is raised by a
bucket and rope. The stone is polished by the kisses
of pilgrims.

The story is that the Wise Men as they trudged along
in the gathering twilight sat down by this well to rest.
When they stooped forward to draw some water to
drink, they saw reflected in its mirror-like surface the
guiding Star. They looked toward the heavens, and
then, in the words of the Scripture:

Lo, the star which they saw in the East went before them, until
it came and stood over where the young child was.

It was not far from here that I caught my first
sight of the field where the shepherds lay when the
angel and the heavenly host announced Christ's birth
to them. It is said to be the field of Boaz upon
which Ruth gleaned her wheat. It lies across the valley
to the east of Bethlehem. There is a little village in
front of it, and a part of the field is covered by an olive
grove. I saw the sheep feeding upon it, and as I rode
to Bethlehem I passed flocks of them being driven to
the Jerusalem markets. They were of the fat-tailed

141

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

variety, some of their tails weighing, I venture, fifteen
pounds each. The drivers were kind-eyed and gentle
in their manners and as they went by us they cried out
Neharak said, or "May thy day be happy!" To this we
replied Neharak said umubarak which in Arabic means
"May thy day also be happy and blessed/'

The shepherds were dressed in long gowns and wore
handkerchiefs about their heads as turbans. Some of
them wore sheepskins, and it is probable that they were
clad much the same as those who "came with haste"
and found the infant Jesus lying in a manger. There is
a chapel now in the Field of the Shepherds, and for cen-
turies a church and a monastery stood on the spot.

Soon after leaving Jerusalem we pass a hill on the left
of the road, where, the guide says, stood the building in
which Judas Iscariot sold his Lord for thirty pieces of
silver. Not far away is an old olive tree upon which
the pilgrims are told Judas hanged himself in his remorse
after the Crucifixion.

Going onward about four miles from Jerusalem we
come to a building which has just received a fresh coat
of whitewash. It is known as the Tomb of Rachel,
and covers the spot where she is said to be buried. Not
far from it David had his fight with Goliath, the ten-foot
giant of the Scriptures. I am not sure as to the locality,
but there are millions of stones there to-day, and plenty
of ammunition for the slings of an army of Davids. In-
deed, there is hardly a field on the hills of Judea which
is not covered with stones of one size or another, and the
shepherds use slings to this day.

And speaking of stones reminds me of the Field of
Peas, which lies not far from Bethlehem. It is a tract

142

BETHLEHEM

on the side of a hill where the stones are so thick that
if it were planted to corn you would have to carry earth
to cover the grains. As the story goes, our Lord was
passing by here when He saw a man sowing grain. He
stopped and asked him what he was sowing. The man
replied " stones." And thereupon the seed peas in his bag
turned to stones, and all that he had sown did the
same. Some of the stones now on the field are gathered
up and peddled to pilgrims as relics.

I had one such pedlar follow me half the way from
Jerusalem to Bethlehem. He was a turbaned Syrian
boy on a donkey, who had to gallop to keep up with my
carriage. To this the donkey objected, and the boy kept
him up to his work with a stick as long as a husking peg
and equally sharp. He inserted this under the saddle,
behind him, and then using it as a lever, pulled on the
other end of the peg, forcing its sharp point into the
animal's flesh. At every such pull the donkey kicked
up its heels and increased its speed, while the rider bobbed
up and down, and his long, full-trousered legs stood
straight out.

Climbing the hill, we come into the town of Bethlehem.
We find ourselves in a maze of box-like, one-, two-, and
three-story limestone houses. They stand close to the
edges of winding streets, which are here and there arched
over to shut out the sun. The town, which has about
fifteen thousand inhabitants, is probably ten times as
large as it was when Christ was born. Its chief revenue
comes from its association with the Christian religion
and the fact that Christ was born here. There are thou-
sands of tourists who visit the birthplace of the Saviour
every year, and the chief business of the Bethlehemites

143

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

is making rosaries, crosses, and articles of wood and
mother-of-pearl for sale to the pilgrims as well as for
shipment abroad. I was surprised to learn that the
mother-of-pearl used is imported from the United States,
where it is known as "pearl waste." Shells are carved
and sold to tourists in Jerusalem and elsewhere, and the
Palestine beads, so largely used as rosaries, both by
Mohammedans and Christians, are made here. These
beads are filed out of oyster shells until they are the right
size. Holes are then drilled in them and they are polished
by shaking them about in crockery vessels with a little
water. After this they are treated in a weak solution
of nitric acid, polished again, and strung on cords of silk
or wire. Crosses and hearts are made of mother-of-pearl,
and sometimes a little image of the Saviour is attached
to the rosary. Much of this work is done by women and
girls, who receive from twelve to twenty-five cents a day.
It is estimated that the total production of such wares
sells for in the neighbourhood of two hundred thousand
dollars a year, and that something like thirty thousand
dollars' worth are shipped to the United States annually.

The grotto or cave in which Christ was born is in the
very heart of the Bethlehem of to-day. There is an open
square in front of it surrounded by stores and schools, and
a great church known as the Church of the Nativity has
been built over it. The church is entered by a door which
looks like a square hole cut through a stone wall. It is
so low that all who enter, even the children, must stoop.
As I started to go in I saw a Bethlehem woman with a
baby in her arms standing outside. The baby was small,
and I could imagine the woman as Mary and the child
as the Saviour. Taking a coin out of my pocket, I asked

144

Ropes used by generations of drawers of water have furrowed the
stones of Jacob's Well where Christ talked with the woman of Samaria.
Over it the Greeks have recently erected a stone chapel

There are left in Palestine less than two hundred Samaritans, whose
High Priest guards the ancient scroll of the first five books of the Bible.,
which they claim is the original version of the Pentateuch

BETHLEHEM

her to pose for my camera. She did so, carrying the
child into the sun. Near by, in the shadow of the church,
was a bearded Syrian in turban and gown, and at first I
thought he might make a good Joseph to pose with my
Mary. Upon bringing him into the light, however, I found
that he was a beggar and would not fit into the picture,
so I enriched him with a gift of five cents and sent him
back to his seat.

One part of the Church of the Nativity is controlled
by the Armenians and Latins, another by the Greeks,
and there are soldiers on hand to keep the worshippers in
order. These two sects fight for the right to take care of
the birthplace of Jesus, and not long ago a controversy
arose over which should clean one of the windows. Both
the Armenians and the Greeks were quarrelling over it
when the Mohammedan authorities came in and forbade
either sect to touch it. Therefore, that window remained
unwashed.

The stable is under the church. It is reached by a
winding staircase going down into a cave floored with
marble about twelve feet wide and forty feet long. Thirty-
two lamps burn day and night within it. Set in the
marble pavement is a star over which there is an inscrip-
tion stating that on that spot the Virgin Mary gave
birth to Christ. This star is held down by nails. Once
the Armenian who had the right to clean it was working
away when he knocked off the head of one of the nails.
This caused a great commotion. The Greeks, Latins,
and Armenians began to fight over it, and the governor of
Jerusalem, to settle the dispute, called in a blacksmith to
drill out the old nail and put in a new one. The black-
smith proved to be a member of one of the quarrelling

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

sects. In order to settle the trouble the governor called
in a gypsy, who had no religious standing whatever, and
he replaced the nail without opposition.

At one side of the cave is a recess called the Chapel
of the Manger, where it is said the Saviour was laid after
His birth. The manger is of brown-and-white marble,
and a wax doll lies in it representing the Christ. The
Latins claim that they have the original manger in one
of their cathedrals in Rome. It is shown every Christ-
mas.

As I stood in the stable not far from the manger, a party
of twenty Franciscan monks came in and knelt down and
sang a service concerning the Nativity. They were
burly men with shaved heads and long beards. They
wore long gowns and their heads and feet were bare.
They knelt upon the floor as they sang, and at the end
each bowed down and kissed the star marking the spot
of Christ's birth.

This Bethlehem grotto, if indeed it was ever used as a
stable, has been so changed by the decorations that it is
impossible to conceive it to be the place of the Nativity.
It is probably a fraud, as is also the well at one side of
the crypt where the water is said to have burst forth
from the naked rock for the use of the Holy Family. I
looked down into this well. It is said that the star, that
guided the Magi fell into it, but that it is only visible to
the eye of a virgin.

I tried in vain to imagine the scenes of Christ's birth.
The decorations were out of all keeping with the place,
and the warring Christians prevented reverent thought.
I got a better idea by going into some of the actual
stables which are in use in Palestine to-day, and which

146

BETHLEHEM

are just about the same now as they were nineteen hun-
dred years ago. I remember one such stable near Je-
rusalem. It was a cave with a floor of rough stone,
divided into chambers or stalls, which opened into a sort
of court. There were men and women sleeping on the
floors of the courts, with the animals eating out of their
stone boxes or mangers about them. The people had no
bedclothing except their blankets, and ate their meals
on the floor. It was on such a floor that Mary had to
lie, because there was no room at the inn, and the manger
in which the baby Christ lay was probably a hollowed-
out stone box such as those in which the donkeys were
eating. Within this stable I saw a Bedouin woman with
a sleeping baby on her knee. She had just been feeding
the child and one breast peeped out between the folds of
her coarse, rough gown. Her arms were bare to the
shoulders and there were bracelets upon her wrists. Her
face was as sweet as that of any Madonna I have ever
seen upon canvas, and her baby, still in its swaddling
clothes, looked as pure and as innocent as the most
famous representation of the infant Christ.

It was in such stable that the Wise Men knelt and pre-
sented their gifts. It was there that the shepherds came,
and it was there that our Redeemer first saw the light of
this world.

Here at Bethlehem occurred the slaughter of the in-
nocents. King Herod had learned that the Saviour was
born, and he thought that if this infant King of the Jews
still lived at Bethlehem he would make sure of His death.
So his soldiers killed all the children under two years of
age. In a place here, which the guides tell you was used
for storing the bodies, there are oil paintings horribly

147

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

done depicting the killing. Bethlehem was so small that
it must have been difficult to hide the infant Christ
from the men sent by King Herod to search for Him, and
it is no wonder that Joseph and Mary took the Holy
Child and fled with Him to Egypt.

The Bethlehem of to-day has entirely recovered from
the massacre of Herod. Its streets swarm with babies
many of whom are not as clean as they should be. There
are many older children as well, and all howl for bak-
sheesh. The Bethlehemites are noted for their beauty,
especially the girls, who are fair-skinned and bright-eyed.
Their plump, well-rounded forms are clad in long gowns
of white linen so beautifully embroidered in silk that
one dress requires many months' work. The main part
of their costume is much like a lady's nightgown. The
gown falls to the feet, being open at the front in a narrow
slit as far down as the breast. Over the gowns they
wear sleeveless coats of dark red stripes and cover their
heads with shawls of linen embroidered in silk. Each
girl has necklaces of coins and a headdress decorated with
coins of silver or gold. They do not cover their faces, and
their features are usually refined. They are very intelli-
gent, and in trading with them I find that they generally
get the best of the bargain.

148

The Samaritans dress in white for the Feast of the Passover on their
holy hill of Mt. Gerizim. where lambs are killed as in the days of Aaron.
They are very poor and greatly despised by the orthodox Jews

Pulling tares from the wheat is the children's task. If they are not
removed the bread will be bitter

The camel blubbers and bawls as his hair is clipped off to make tents for

his master

CHAPTER XIX

AMONG THE SAMARITANS

I HAVE just had an interview with a lineal descend-
ant of Aaron, the brother of Moses. I refer to
Jacob, the high priest of the Samaritans. He be-
longs to the tribe of the Levites, who in ancient
times were at the head of the priesthood, and he claims
a genealogical tree reaching from that day to this. His
family has lived in Palestine for more than three thousand
years, and high priest has succeeded high priest until
this man took the position at the age of fifteen, succeed-
ing his childless uncle. He is now almost eighty, and he
looks, I imagine, as Aaron and Moses may have looked in
the latter part of their lives. Over six feet tall, he has
the face and form of a prophet. His long beard falls
down upon his chest and his scholarly face is refined and
spiritual looking.

I met Jacob here at Nablus on the site of old Shechem,
within a stone's throw of the well where Christ talked
with the woman of Samaria. It is not far from a farm
which Abraham owned, and about on the spot where
Joshua gathered together the tribes of Israel and read
them the law of Moses.

Our conversation took place in the heart of the city in
the synagogue of the Samaritans. I had to go through
vaulted passageways and cave-like streets to reach it.
I had an interpreter with me, and as we talked the high

149

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

priest showed me what he said were the original parch-
ments of the five books of Moses as they were written by
Abou, the son of Ben Hassan, the son of Eleazar, who,
you remember, was one of the two sons of Aaron by
Elisheba, his wife. The high priest tells me that these
five manuscripts were written only twelve years after the
Israelites came into the Promised Land, and that they
are now nearly four thousand years old. They are the
oldest Bible manuscripts in existence. They are written
in the Hebrew of the times of Moses, upon long sheets of
parchment about two feet in width. The scrolls are
rolled upon three rods each tipped with a silver knob as
big as a teacup, and they can be rolled and unrolled as
they are read. The ink is still clear and the letters are
distinct although the parchment is yellow with age.
The manuscript is treasured by the Samaritans, being
kept in a brass case inlaid with gold. It is said to have
been dug up about three hundred years ago, and has
formed a subject of controversy among oriental scholars.
The Samaritans believe that it was written by the grand-
son of Aaron, as the high priest here claims; but the Jews
reject it as false, denouncing the Samaritans as pagan out-
casts from the tribes of the Children of Israel.

I was surprised to find that there were any Samaritans
living. I had supposed that they had been swallowed up
by the people of other faiths. I find, however, that there
are about two hundred in Nablus, and that they practise
the same religion as they did when Christ came.

They annually celebrate the feasts of the Passover and
Pentecost on Mount Gerizim. These feasts are different
from those of the latter-day Jews. At the time of Jesus
the Feast of the Passover was eaten reclining and as

150

AMONG THE SAMARITANS

though at the end of a journey rather than at the begin-
ning. The Samaritans eat their Passover with their shoes
bound upon their feet and staves in their hand as though
ready to start out on their wanderings in the wilderness.

They do this on the top of the mountain, going up there
en masse and camping in tents. They smear the blood
of the sacrifice upon the tents to commemorate the pas-
sage of the angel of death over the houses of Israel. They
dress in white garments and kill the animals which are
burnt according to the methods in use when Aaron
lived. The sacrifice consists of buck lambs each of which
is carefully examined that it may be without wound or
blemish. At a given signal the throats of the lambs are
cut, and at the same time some of the blood is caught in
tin tubs and smeared over the tents. As the blood flows
the people shout out again and again the words " There
is but one God." At the same time there is a service,
beginning with a hymn praising Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, and followed by a prayer of thanksgiving.

The meat for the sacrifice is cooked over a fire in the
earth. As soon as the animals are killed they are scalded
and the wool is pulled off. The entrails are removed and
salted. A pole is thrust through each lamb, and it is
laid on the hot coals of a fire made in a trench. The meat
is then covered with brush and earth. As it cooks, the
people continue to pray, and keep on praying until the
sunset approaches. At ten minutes after sunset they be-
gin to eat the meat, throwing the bones into the fire with-
out breaking them.

In my talk with the high priest he contended that the
Samaritans were the only true Israelites, and spoke of
the prophet Samuel as a sorcerer. He paid his respects to

151

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

the Jews in no measured terms. He gave me a little book
he had written concerning the religion of the Samaritans,
and at the close was by no means averse to a present of
silver for which he thanked me in a dignified way. After
1 returned to my camp on the outside of Nablus some of
his followers brought me his photograph and a model of
the five books of Moses which they offered to sell for a
song. The Samaritans are exceedingly poor and are de-
spised by both Moslems and Jews.

It was at Jacob's Well, not far from Nablus, that
Christ met the Samaritan woman and told her of the water
of which, if one drinketh, he shall never thirst, but there
" shall be in him a well of water springing up into ever-
lasting life." You will find the story in the fourth chap-
ter of St. John. This well is one of the holy sites of
Palestine about which there can be no doubt. The
village of Sychar corresponds to the village of Askar,
which stands on Mount Ebal, perhaps a thousand feet
away from the well where the Samaritan woman lived.
The well itself lies just below the road from Jerusalem.
I went through an olive orchard to reach it. It is sur-
rounded by a wall and is in the middle of a garden now
owned by the Greek Church, which has made it a resting
place for pilgrims. Over it they have built a stone chapel
where services are held several times every day.

Some of the priests went with us down the steps to the
well. It lies right in the floor of the chapel and is about
three feet in diameter, built up with stones. One of the
monks brought a pan tied to a rope in such a way that
it remained level. Upon this he placed a lighted candle
and then slowly lowered it into the well. It descended
perhaps sixty feet before it came to the water. The sill

152

AMONG THE SAMARITANS

of the well is of marble and shows the marks of the ropes
which for ages have been let down into it. It is some
distance above the floor and may have been the original
stone upon which Christ sat at that weary hour of noon.

Jacob's Well has been known and visited by pilgrims
for many years. It probably used to be even with the
surface of the earth, but the debris and earth-washings
from the mountains near by have filled up the valley, and
it is now considerably below the present ground level.
Excavations have uncovered in the garden the remains
of a church which was built over the well some fifteen
hundred years ago. I found immense granite columns
lying in the garden as well as many pieces of the stone
wall of the church.

While I was here a party of travellers conducted by one
of the great tourist agencies arrived. They were Amer-
icans "doing" the Holy Land at so much per day, and
they were bound to get the worth of their money. One
I shall never forget. He had such a gigantic frame that
I shall call him Goliath. When the party went down to
the well the services in the chapel had just begun, and
after pointing out the hole in the floor, the guide brought
them out. As they came into the churchyard I heard
Goliath remark:

"I ain't satisfied."

"About what?" said the guide.

"I ain't satisfied about that well. How do I know
there's a well there?"

"You saw it," said the guide.

"Naw, I only saw a hole in the floor. How do I know
there's a well? How do I know it has water? I tell you
I ain't satisfied. Here I come five thousand miles to

153

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

see Jacob's Well, and how can I prove that I've saw
it?"

The man protested so much that the guide took him
back, stopped the service, and had them let down the
candle. Further than that, he brought up some of the
water which Goliath drank at a gulp. I have run across
this huge doubting Thomas before on the trip. He
would not believe in the spot where our Lord was bap-
tized in the Jordan, saying that the banks were too steep,
and that if he couldn't crawl down them no one, not
even John the Baptist, could do so.

It took me just one day to come from Jerusalem to
Shechem. My outfit was a three-horse team harnessed
to an American wagon. The horses were good, and we
drove up hill and down on the trot. We started at Jaffa
Gate, passed the Place of the Skull, where General Gor-
don thought the Saviour was crucified, and then crossed
the valley of Kedron. We climbed Mount Scopus,
which joins Olivet, and rode under the hill on top of which
was Mizpah, where Samuel was buried and Saul was
publicly chosen King of the Jews. There is a mosque on
that spot and the place is holy to Jews, Christians,
and Moslems alike, all of whom worship at Samuel's
tomb. Mizpah lies on a peak about three thousand feet
above the Mediterranean, and on one of the highest of
the Judean mountains. Here an army of crusaders
stood with Richard the Lion-Hearted and got their first
sight of Jerusalem. As they looked King Richard knelt
down and thus prayed:

"O Lord God, I pray Thee that I may never again
see Thy Holy City if I may not recover it from the
hands of thine enemies."

154

AMONG THE SAMARITANS

That prayer was uttered seven centuries ago when
Jerusalem had already been in the hands of the Moham-
medans for about six hundred years.

The road we took to Samaria was the one over which
came the boy Christ and the Holy Family when they
travelled up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. It
is one of the highways of the Holy Land, and is still trav-
elled by thousands. About ten miles beyond Mount
Scopus we stopped at Beeroth, a stone village surrounded
by green orchards of figs and pomegranates. Tradition
says that Nablus is the place where Joseph and Mary as
they were returning to Nazareth discovered that their
twelve-year-old boy was not with them and went back
to find Him teaching the wise men in the temple.

A little farther on we came to Bethel where the Benja-
mites lived, where Abraham reared an altar and called
on the name of the Lord, and where Jacob took stones for
his pillow and dreamed that he saw the ladder extending
to heaven and the angels ascending and descending there-
on. The name Bethel, which means the House of God,
has been changed to Beitin. It is a poor stone village
of about five hundred people, with a ruined tower and a
church.

Shiloh, just off the road a little farther on toward Sa-
maria, is now called Seilun, and, as Jeremiah prophesied,
it is nothing but ruins. Where it stood is a mound cov-
ered with debris, broken columns, and rubbish, so that
one is reminded of the passage: "But go ye now unto
. . . Shiloh . . . and see what I did to it for
the wickedness of my people Israel/'

Nevertheless, Shiloh is one of the most interesting spots
of the country. Here Eli dwelt and here Hannah came

155

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

every year with a new coat for her little son Samuel,
whom she had given up to the Lord. It was here that
Joshua divided the land and the Philistines stole the
Ark of the Covenant.

I am surprised at the caravans which are continually
crossing these Palestine mountains. There seems to be
a great trade north and south, and the roads are full of
odd-looking people. On my way here I saw crowds of
men and women on donkeys coming up to Jerusalem.
Some were from Galilee, others from Damascus, and not a
few from the mountains of Lebanon. One crowd told us
that its people were Mohammedans, and that they were
making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the tomb of
Moses. There were many women among them. They
sat astride upon donkeys and some of them carried babies
in their arms.

We passed many camels. Some were loaded with
white building stone slung in a network of rope on
each side of their humps. They were carrying the stone
to Jerusalem. Others were ridden by women and men.
I saw one with two veiled women clad all in black on its
back and two boxes below them, each box holding a baby.

Another party was composed of Samaritan women on
their way to a Moslem festival. They were red haired
and as straight as royal palm trees. They carried their
baggage in bundles on top of their heads and walked sin-
gle file. Behind them were women from Lebanon walk-
ing barefooted and singing in Arabic. They were tattooed
on lips, chin, and cheeks, and their bare heads were frowsy
and dusty. They were clad in long cotton gowns em-
broidered with red. Only a few were good looking and
all seemed prematurely old.

156

But the Jewish colonists here lost no time in adopting modern farm
machinery on their lands, with most gratifying results

The sheep that was lost is found by the roadside, and the shepherd is
all smiles. At night, several shepherds will gather their sheep in one
place. In the morning each calls to his own charges, who know his voice
and will always come to him

AMONG THE SAMARITANS

I am now living in my tents outside this old town of
Shechem. My camp faces Mount Ebal, and above me is
Gerizim, the holy hill of the Samaritans. It is very
near the spot where the laws of Moses were read by
Joshua to the assembled Children of Israel. The country
is in the shape of a great amphitheatre of which the hills
form the walls. These hills are, it is said, a natural
sounding board, so that one can talk on one mountain
and be heard on the other, and for this reason the place
was chosen for reading the laws.

Shechem, or Nablus, is one of the oldest towns in his-
tory. It was founded long before Jerusalem was built
and even before Jacob's time. It is within about six
miles of the city of Samaria, where Ahab had his ivory
palace and where Herod the Great owned a royal man-
sion. Here, so it is said, he gave that birthday party at
which his stepdaughter Salome danced. You remember
the story. Her dancing, which I doubt not was that of
the nautch girl, so delighted King Herod that he told her
she should have whatever she asked, even to the half of
his kingdom. She thereupon, as her mother insisted, de-
manded the head of John the Baptist, who was lying in
prison near by, and this bloody gift was brought in on
a great plate or charger.

There is a Spanish legend that Salome, as divine pun-
ishment for causing the murder of John the Baptist, was
herself beheaded some years later. According to the
story, she married a Roman general and went to live in
Spain. While skating on a river there she fell in, and
her body is said to have struck the edge of the ice with
such force as to sever her neck, and her head went skid-
ding over the frozen surface.

157

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

The old town of Samaria has long since fallen to ruin.
Its site is a mound with some broken pillars and other
debris lying near it and an olive orchard not far away in
which more of the columns are still to be seen.

As for Nablus, it thrives, and is one of the liveliest
towns in the Holy Land. It is the chief commercial cen^
tre between Damascus and Jerusalem, and its population
of thirty thousand is almost entirely Mohammedan.
There are some Jewish merchants, but neither Jews nor
Christians are much welcomed. I have been told to
watch out as I go through its narrow, filthy streets and
to take care not to provoke any one. Several times the
boys have thrown stones at our party, and men spit as
we pass them. People yell out "Nazarenes" at us, and
my guide refuses to let me photograph them, saying
picture-taking would surely get us into trouble. The city
is so fanatical that even the Christian women go about
with veils over their faces. The English nurse who is
working here in the Charity Hospital is veiled like a
Mohammedan when she goes out on the street. Other-
wise she would cause much comment, and her reputation
and work would be ruined.

.58

CHAPTER XX

FARMING IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY

I GIVE you to-day some bits of Palestine out of doors.
Within the past few weeks, keeping away from the
cities and towns, I have watched the shepherds and
farmers. I have seen the real Palestine, with the
same sky, the same rocks and hills, and the same carpet
of wild flowers as in the days of our Lord. I have talked
with the farmers in the fields, have ridden side by side
with the modern Balaam as he climbed the hills on his
ass, and have even put my hand to ploughs such as were
used in the times of the Scriptures, and with a goad have
pricked on the bullocks and donkeys as they turned up
the sod.

The Palestine of the Bible was a land of the farmer.
The Children of Israel and their leaders were brought up
or worked on the farm. Abraham had numerous sheep
and so had Isaac and Jacob. Saul was the son of old
Farmer Kish, and he was hunting his father's asses when
he was met by Samuel, the prophet, who gave him a
kingdom. David was watching the sheep when Farmer
Jesse, his father, sent him to the battle, where with his
sling he killed the mighty Goliath. Lot was one of the
richest farmers the Jordan Valley has known, and as for
Job, who lived in old Uz, he was the cattle king of his
time, owning seven thousand sheep, three thousand
camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she

159

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

asses. It was in one farm village, Bethlehem, that our
Saviour was born, and in another farming settlement,
Nazareth, that He grew up to manhood. A great part of
His life was spent in going about among the shepherds and
farmers, and in His preaching most of the examples and
figures in His parables were drawn from things of the soil.

The most common sight out of doors in the Holy Land
is the sheep. They are everywhere. You find them on
the rich plains where the Philistines lived; they feed
among the rocks on the slopes of the Judean mountains,
and spot the wilderness all the way down to Jericho;
they graze on every part of Samaria and Galilee and
almost everywhere on the plain of Esdraelon. They are
always watched over by shepherds who often drive them
to new feeding grounds. The greater part of this country
is mountainous. Limestone rocks cover the soil, which
is so thin that if you could pare it off for a depth of eight
inches there would be nothing but stone. It is different
in the plains and the valleys, but the hills are terraces of
rock covered with boulders and sprinkled here and there
with patches of earth. Yet the least bit of soil will grow
luxuriant grass, and the sheep seem to grow fat on the
stones.

I remember some flocks I saw on my way to the Jor-
dan. They were composed of heavy- wooled animals
with tails of fat hanging down like aprons behind them.
The best of them weighed two hundred pounds each, and
the average was fatter and finer than the best sheep of
America. Some were white- wooled and some brown, and
some had brown heads and white bodies. I have tasted
the mutton; it is excellent, being the choicest meat to
be had at the hotels.

1 60

The colonists terrace the hillsides to hold back the soil with stones
cleared from the fields, once thought too rocky for cultivation. Many
neglected and treeless hills have been utterly denuded of earth by the
rains of centuries

Almonds have proved a paying proposition for Jewish colonists in
Palestine, where they have long been cultivated. When Jacob desired
his sons to take into Egypt of the best fruits of Canaan, he mentioned the
almond

FARMING IN LAND OF MILK AND HONEY

The shepherds are about the same all over Palestine,
kindly eyed men with fair faces bronzed by the sun.
They stay out all day on the hills with the sheep, driving
them into the villages at night. Each shepherd has his
staff and his scrip, a little bag of dried skin. He uses
a sling as David did to send a pebble just in front of any
straying sheep so as to turn it back. The strings of the
slings are of goat hair, and the pad for the stone is of the
same material, often made with a slit in the middle so
that when a pebble is put in the sling fits close like a bag.
Such slings are now used in fights between the boys of
the villages, who practise to see who can throw stones
the farthest.

The wool of the Palestine sheep is especially fine. It
brings a higher price than that of Damascus, and some-
thing like a million dollars' worth of it is exported a year.
The shearing is done by hand, and much of the wool is
sold unwashed. Some is washed after shearing, the work
being done by women.

Nearly every flock of sheep has its goats. They are
usually black so they can be picked out from the sheep
at a great distance. Some of the goats produce excellent
milk, the best as much as three quarts a day.

There is a great deal in the Bible about the sheepfolds.
These are common in Palestine. In the villages they are
often corrals and sometimes they are caves on the hills.
The village folds are closed at night, and the shepherds
keep the keys. Those of the mountains are usually open
and the sheep go in and out as they will.

In some parts of the country the shepherds pasture their
flocks separately by day, but at evening several of them
often bring their sheep together in a large open field or a

161

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

spot sheltered from the winds. Then each of the four
or five men will take turns at keeping watch while the
others sleep, curled up in their sheepskins. The shep-
herds to whom the "glad tidings" came on the first
Christmas Eve were thus guarding their flocks by night.
In the morning each shepherd calls out to his sheep, and
they, knowing his voice, come to him until he has his
whole flock around him again. They will pay no heed
to the same call if it is uttered by a stranger or another
shepherd. Often to make sure his sheep are all there and
also to see that they are all right the shepherd causes
them to pass under his rod between him and a rock.
He can thus count them, and if one is limping or sickly
he can pull it out of line with the crook of his staff and
give it special care.

. The Palestine shepherd does not use his staff to drive
his charges, for he always goes before with the sheep fol-
lowing him. The club or crook he carries is for protec-
tion and defence of his flock. If they are frightened the
sight of the crook on his shoulder calms their panic. One
is reminded of the words of the Psalmist: "Thy rod and
thy staff they comfort me."

One of the most important duties of the shepherd is to
water the flock. He does this at streams or wells. At
the wells the women draw the water for the sheep as they
did in Bible times. They use bags of goatskin untanned.
The skin is taken almost whole from the goats, and the
legs and other openings are tied up so that it will hold
water. One hole is left at the throat into which the
water is poured. The water for the household is carried
in such bags, a network of ropes being wrapped around
a skin so that it can be rested upon the back, the bag

162

FARMING IN LAND OF MILK AND HONEY

being supported by a rope around the forehead. The
water-bag of the ordinary size, when filled, weighs at
least fifty pounds. The women go along with their
heads bent far over, carrying water to their village homes.
They do this day after day all their lives long. This is
one of the most common sights of the Holy Land.

Indeed these Palestine peasants are strong men and
women. The men bear astonishing weights, and nobody
thinks anything of walking twenty miles and more in a
day. One naturally asks as to their diet. This is largely
rice, vegetables, nuts, and the whole-meal unleavened
bread of the country baked in flat cakes as in Bible days.
Meat is a rare luxury. The Arabic name for bread is
aish, which means life, and to the peasants of the Holy
Land it is the staff of life. They have even a sort of
reverence for it. No one will trample a fallen crumb into
the dust, and even the smallest bit dropped or thrown
away by a careless child will be picked up and lodged in
a crack of a stone or wall so the birds may get it. To-
matoes, squash, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, and egg-
plant are common vegetables. There is a saying of the
eggplant that there are so many different ways of pre-
paring it that if during the eggplant season a woman
says to her husband, "I know not what to provide for
dinner/' he has sufficient cause for divorcing her.

Grapes not quite ripe are much relished when eaten
with salt. Cucumbers take much the place of apples
with us. Coffee is considered a necessity. It is bought
in the raw berry and a housekeeper is judged by her skill
in roasting and preparing it. Even if a family cannot
afford it for every day it must be on hand for guests.
Men often carry some coffee berries in their pockets for

163

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

use at friendly gatherings, and wherever men meet for
business or ceremony coffee is expected.

The Palestine of to-day is a land of donkeys and cam-
els. I suppose the latter are about the same as those
owned by Job. They are raised in Beersheba, where
the people live largely on their milk. The camel is the
freight car of Palestine. In going over the country I
have seen many caravans of them. On the way to
Zammarin we passed some camels which the Bedouin
drivers were shearing. They were clipping the wool from
the kneeling beasts, which cried and moaned and now and
then uttered shrieks as the shears nipped off bits of their
flesh. Not a few actually shed tears. The wool of these
camels is woven into a coarse cloth used for making the
coverings of the Bedouin tents.

As far as I can see the camels of the Holy Land have
no easy job. They carry loads of three or four hundred
pounds each, and on short trips their packs are left on
day and night. They begin to work at three years, and
often last until they are twenty-five years of age.

The donkeys are much cheaper than camels. They
are the draft animals of the poor, and are used by the
farmers for carrying vegetables and wood into market.
I see them loaded with olive roots on their way to Je-
rusalem, and now and then pass a donkey caravan, every
animal carrying a bag of grain which has been balanced
upon his back and which the driver holds there as he goes
up the steep hills.

Palestine is often called "the land of milk and honey."
This it was in the past, and this, so far at least as the honey
is concerned, it may be again. I have already referred
to the delicious honey served at the hotel in Jerusalem.

164

_ - — - '

With cypresses and palms Jewish colonists have beautified this plan-
tation near Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. The Jews answer the objec-
tions of the Arabs to their settlements by pointing out how they have
"made the desert bloom like the rose"

Carpenters of Nazareth and their shops are much the same to-day as
when Joseph plied his trade and the boy Jesus helped him. Nazareth is
a mountain village of some eight thousand people — Greeks, Moslems,
Maronites, Roman Catholics, and about a hundred Protestants

FARMING IN LAND OF MILK AND HONEY

Modern bee-keeping was started in Palestine by an enter-
prising Swiss in one of the Jewish colonies. His bees
were kept in hives made of terra-cotta jars, which were
moved to different pastures several times during a sea-
son so as to get the benefit of different kinds of flowers.
The average yield of honey per hive is about one hundred
pounds, and the product is delicious.

As to the Palestine flowers, I cannot describe them.
There are said to be more than three thousand varieties.
Crossing the upper plains of Sharon I rode through great
fields of daisies as yellow as buttercups. There were
greenish-white flowers carpeting the roadside, and among
them poppies, gladioli, and lilies. In the gardens at
Zammarin are geraniums as large as rose bushes and on
the sides of the hills wild flowers of every description.
There are yellow violets, and pink and blue blossoms
whose names I know not. There is also a red flower
called "the blood drop of Christ.' ' It is said to have
sprung up on the spots where dropped the blood of our
Saviour as He carried the cross. In a single day's travel
over the Samaritan mountains I counted thirty-five dif-
ferent wild flowers. At one place I saw what looked
like piles of Bermuda onions pulled up along the road-
side. There were bushels of them, and I supposed they
had been spilled out by a broken-down caravan. "Those
are lily bulbs which the farmers have dug out of the
fields," said my guide, and farther on I saw the men dig-
ging. The lilies are yellow and white and grow wild.
"They toil not, neither do they spin," but they cause the
farmer to toil and are one of the pests he has to get rid of.

There are but few farms of large size in the Holy Land.
The chief cultivated patches on the mountains are those

.65

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

which have been cleared of stones. They are often no
bigger than a parlour rug and seldom contain more than
three or four acres. Such fields frequently have stone
walls about them. Down in the valleys and on the plains
of the Philistines the farms are not separated by fences
and are much larger. They are planted to wheat, beans,
and barley, and grow luxuriant crops. One of the inter-
esting scenes of the wheat fields is often referred to in the
Bible. This is pulling the tares, the seeds of which, if
left, will make the flour bitter. Gangs of girls are en-
gaged in this business all over Palestine. Each gang
works under an overseer, and the girls bend half double
as they pull the weeds from the wheat. It is said that a
farmer's enemies even to-day sometimes sow tares in
his wheat, just as in the parable.

Speaking of wheat, it is claimed that Palestine is one
of the places in which that grain originated. There is
wild wheat here to-day, and the agricultural experts are
investigating to find out what can be done with the
other wild grains found in different parts of this country.

The ploughs of the Holy Land are about the same now as
those used in the days of the Bible. They are crude af-
fairs, made of wood tipped with iron, to which oxen and
bullocks are yoked with a rough piece of wood fastened
to the necks of the animals. Sometimes the yoke is
tilted at an angle of forty-five degrees, reaching from the
neck of a camel down to that of a donkey. Donkeys and
cows are also harnessed together, and bullocks and
camels. The plough ends in a point like that of a pickaxe.
It only scratches the soil, and nowhere goes very deep.
The furrows are so narrow that many ploughs are required
for large fields. The ploughmen wear long gowns, and on

1 66

FARMING IN LAND OF MILK AND HONEY

their heads are cloths bound round with rope. They
wear rough shoes or go barefoot.

Much of the land in the mountainous parts is so rocky
that ploughs are not used. The earth is broken up with
mattocks or hoes and all the crops are cultivated by hand.
Nevertheless, this limestone soil is so rich that it will
often produce several crops in one year. Figs, olives, and
other fruits flourish. There are olive orchards every-
where. They cover the sides of the hills and are near
every farm village. I was hardly out of sight of them
on my way from Shechem to Mount Carmel. A great
quantity of oil is exported.

The curse of the Palestine farmer has long been the
Mohammedan tax gatherer and assessor. These men
have squeezed the heart out of both the farmer and his
crop. The tax assessors have gone out over the coun-
try in the blossom time of the olive orchards and levied
on each tree the cash tax to be paid no matter how the
crop finally turned out. The olive harvest often fails in
Palestine, so rather than pay unjust and excessive taxes
the discouraged farmers have sometimes simply cut down
trees and sold both wood and roots.

It is not only the olive orchards that have suffered
from this kind of taxation. One eighth of the annual
yield of every crop has been taken from the people. The
custom of selling to the highest bidder the right to col-
lect the taxes in a given district has, of course, made
things worse. In their determination to get back the
money they paid the government and a handsome profit
for themselves besides, these men have had no mercy
on the farmer. The bundles of grain brought to the
village threshing-floors and put up in stacks of eight

i67

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

have been closely watched by the tax gatherers and their
agents.

Besides these farm taxes, the people have suffered from
a head tax of two dollars on every male member of the
community from birth to death, from the salt tax, from
taxes on imports, and on everything that a man eats,
drinks, or wears.

Once freed from oppressive taxation and its farmers
given a fair chance, there is no doubt that Palestine will
produce many times what it has done under Turkish
rule.

1 68

CHAPTER XXI

THE COLONIES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT

JEWS in the Holy Land are bringing to life again
the Palestine of the past. They are proving that
their ancient "land of milk and honey " can be
made to bloom and prosper. Gathered together
in colonies, they are introducing modern farming methods
and showing what can be done under proper conditions.

The trim Jewish villages built by the colonists are a
refreshing sight in contrast to the dirty Arab settle-
ments and their more or less desolate surroundings.
The energy and alertness of many of the settlers are also
noticeable as compared with the natives who have been
content for centuries to do no more than their fathers
have done before them and in the same ways.

At first most of the Jews came to Palestine only for the
sake of ending their days in the land of their fathers.
They were a sort of resident pilgrims. Others came to
get away from oppression and persecution. Gradually
the success of the farm colonies attracted the attention
of Jews all over the world, and regularly organized move-
ments for planting Jewish settlements in the Holy Land
sprang up. More and more colonists began to come
because they wanted to get on the land and saw in Pales-
tine chances of greater freedom and success in life than
in the crowded streets and small shops of European
cities. Colonies were set up under all sorts of schemes

169

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

and plans, and while there have been some failures, many
have been quite successful.

When groups of colonists first come out they fre-
quently live in tents, and even before they build perma-
nent houses set to work starting nurseries, planting
trees, draining swamps, picking up stones, and otherwise
preparing the land for cultivation. Millions and mil-
lions of stones have been picked up from the rock-strewn
hillsides of Palestine, piled into baskets, and then carried
off and laid up to form terraces to keep the soil from
being washed away or to make walls like those so often
seen on New England farms.

There is a tree here called the "Jews' tree," because
the colonists have planted so many of them on their
lands. This is the eucalyptus, first brought to Pales-
tine by the Jewish settlers. As this tree absorbs a great
deal of moisture it is a good one to plant in swampy land,
and, as has been found in other countries, by helping to
drain the marshes it is a factor in keeping down malaria.
Besides giving shade in this land of glaring sun, it fur-
nishes wood for orange boxes and may in time be
grown to such an extent as to increase the scanty fuel
supply.

Some of these farm colonies are in Galilee, some in
Judea, and a very large one is not far from the seaport
of Jaffa.

The latter is known as the Rishon le Zion, or "the first
colony of Zion/' It supports a village of about twelve
hundred people, who cultivate three thousand acres, on
which are grown almonds, oranges, and other fruits, es-
pecially grapes. This colony annually makes millions
of gallons of wine and it exports great quantities of Jaffa

170

THE COLONIES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT

oranges. I am told that its wine cellars are the third lar-
gest in the world. It was founded by the Rothschilds to
give persecuted Russian Jews a refuge, and afterward
managed by the Hirsch colonization fund. It is run at a
profit. The other colonies are similar to it, and some of
them nearly as large. Each has a school, a drug store, a
hospital, and a synagogue.

The Sir Moses Montefiore colonies and schools at Je-
rusalem are doing good work, and the French-Jewish
Society, which has a million members, maintains a number
of schools, including manual training schools for girls and
boys. If the students do well they are given capital to
start out with and are established in little shops of their
own. In some of these schools the children are so poor
that they are furnished one meal a day and one suit of
clothes every year.

Another colony, Tel Aviv, or "The Hill of the Ears
of Grain/' has a high school graduates from which have
been admitted to Columbia and other American univer-
sities. The only language spoken in this school is He-
brew, which is being revived as the language of a great
many of the Jews who have settled in the Promised Land.
The colony of Gederah is celebrated for its large flock of
doves, which are the common property of the community.
Rechoboth, founded in 1890, was the first colony to in-
troduce Jewish workmen with success.

While the Jews of ancient Palestine were farmers, it is
now nearly two thousand years since they have had any
land of their own to develop. When they were driven
out of their country by their conquerors, they were scat-
tered over the world, and took refuge in the cities where
most of them have been living ever since. There they

171

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

became a people of traders and shopkeepers, and because
of this fact many have believed that the Jewish colonies
in the Holy Land could never succeed.

The Arabs in Palestine have a saying that the love of
trading is in the blood of a Jew and that he can't help
wanting to be a merchant any more than he can help
wanting to possess the Holy Land. They say that a few
years after coming to Palestine a Jewish colonist will be
found looking out of the back windows of his house at a
gang of Arabs doing his farm work, while in his front
windows he displays, not his farm products, but goods he
has bought for sale. Many of the Jewish settlers did, in
fact, find it difficult to take up farm work, and were in-
clined to hire Arabs who would work for lower wages
than Jews. This led to friction between Jews and
Arabs, but now more and more of the colonists are doing
their own farm work, road making, carpentering, and
other manual labour. The colonists have also learned
that the most scientific farming methods pay best, and
are developing schools where their young people are
taught how to get the most out of the land.
^ The Jews of other lands are liberal in their gifts to the
Jews of Palestine, and, besides helping to set up the colo-
nies, have established schools and hospitals in and about
Jerusalem. One of the sources from which money comes
for the settlement and advancement of the Jewish colo-
nies is a fund collected from the synagogues of the
United States, which is regularly sent from New York
to the Holy Land. Jews all over our country contribute
to it.

There have been several American colonies in the
Holy Land, but the only one that has made any impres-

172

Nazareth lies in a little amphitheatre of hills with a rugged arena. There
is hardly a level spot in the whole town

The boys of Nazareth are friendly, but in fanatical Nablus they throw
stones at Christians

THE COLONIES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT

sion or lasted for any long time is that known for some
years as the SpafTordites. It was founded by Dr. and
Mrs. SpafTord, who belonged to a Presbyterian church
in Chicago. They left the church and came to Jerusalem,
saying that they intended to devote their wealth and their
lives to working for Christ in the Holy Land. They per-
suaded fourteen adults and five children to come with
them, and together they founded a colony which has
lasted until now.

That was 1881. To-day the colony has members from
all parts of the Union. There are a number from New
England, some from the South, several from Kansas and
Nebraska, and quite a delegation from Philadelphia and
Chicago. I have talked with them about their beliefs.
They say they are Christians and that they believe in the
Bible interpreted as it is printed. They take the Golden
Rule as their motto and try to live up to it. They say
they have no hobbies, and that their Christianity is a
practical faith.

This colony lives together as a community, its mem-
bers holding all things in common. At first they threw
their money into a common fund, and lived without
working. Finding, however, that this fund was soon
spent, they established a business of their own and are
now self-supporting. They have their own house out-
side the walls, where they live very comfortably, eating
at a common table with worship morning and evening.
They frequently take Americans in as paying guests,
charging less than the prevailing hotel rates for much
better quarters. They also have a bakery from which
they sell bread and cake; a shoe shop, and an art school,
where girls are taught painting and drawing. They have

173

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

factories where they make desks, boxes, and other beau-
tiful things of olive wood; and a weaving establishment
where cloths of wool and linen are made.

Some years ago they also established what is known as
the American store. This is near the Jaffa Gate inside
Jerusalem, and right on the way from that gate to the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

This store is about the only one-price establishment in
the Holy Land. In all other places three times what is
expected is asked, and one has to dicker and bargain and
beat down the merchants. In the American store one
can buy photographs and slides of the Holy Land, brass
work from Damascus, rugs from Persia and Turkey, and
any sort of curio made in the country.

During my stay in Jerusalem I several times visited
this colony, and was delighted with the peace, quiet, and
brotherly love which seem to prevail. Its members are
well bred and intelligent; and as far as I can see they
practise what they preach. An interesting feature is
their grace before meals. This is always sung at the
table by both members and guests.

One of the most interesting Jewish colonies is at Zam-
marin on the southwest slope of Mount Carmel, where
these notes are written. The place is about five hours*
ride from Haifa, and a day's journey by carriage from
Nablus. The town is owned by a Jewish colony which
has a large tract of land given it by Baron Edward Roths-
child of Paris. The land is high above the sea at the
northern end of the plain of Sharon, so situated that it
commands a view of that plain at the east and of the
Mediterranean Sea at the west. The country about is
covered with chunks of limestone of all shapes and sizes,

174

THE COLONIES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT

and, besides, the bedrock crops out in ledges with small
tracts of arable land here and there.

The Jews have taken this land, have cleared it of the
loose rocks, and are making it bloom like a garden. They
have some quite large fields on top of Mount Carmel,
which is now covered with wheat waving in the wind.
They are raising luxuriant crops of oats and beans and
they have vineyards as thrifty as those of south France
or the Rhine. Their olive orchards would be a credit to
any part of Italy; and their English walnut trees bear
like those of southern California. They are raising fine
cattle, which they graze on the hills in the daytime and
bring in at night. The milk is excellent, and the meat as
tender and sweet as the corn-fed beef of Chicago. I am
told that the land produces abundantly and that the
colony does well.

Zammarin is far different from the squalid Arab towns
of Palestine. Its houses are of German architecture and
many of its people speak German. It has a hotel run by
an American Jew and planned upon Jewish lines. Out-
side the door of my room is fastened a tube of olive wood
containing the Ten Commandments, and similar tubes
are to be found at every door of the hotel, as well as on
the doors of every house in the place. The Jews kiss these
tubes as they go in and out.

Zammarin has sidewalks, and there is a tower into
which water is pumped to supply every house. There
is a synagogue, which is well attended, and a town hall,
where the officials of the colony meet and decide all
matters of local government.

Indeed, the colony is a little republic with a president
and other officials elected by its members. It settles its

175

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

own disputes, and makes assessments for special taxes
for such things as schools and village improvements.
When Zammarin was started it was supported by Roths-
child. Later on it was turned over to the Anglo- Israelite
Colonization Society founded by Baron Hirsch. It was
then supported from Europe, but this did not work and it
is now running itself. Every family works for itself and
has its own property. As a result the people are becom-
ing independent. The standard of self-respect has risen,
and all seem to be prospering.

176

We cross the Sea of Galilee where Christ stilled the sudden tempest
and walked on the waters. On its shores He spoke many of His parables
and wrought a number of His miracles

Through the arched Gate we catch a glimpse of the ruins of ancient
Tiberias, the once proud city of Herod, in the neighbourhood of which
Christ spent much of his active life. For years Tiberias was the seat
of Jewish learning

CHAPTER XXII

WHERE OUR SAVIOUR SPENT HIS BOYHOOD

TO-DAY I am in Nazareth, the home of Christ's
boyhood. Here He was brought as a baby after
the flight into Egypt to escape the bloodthirsty
Herod, and here He spent all but about four years
of His life. The town is situated high up in the mountains
of Galilee, within sixty miles of Jerusalem as the crow
flies and sixty-seven miles from Bethlehem, where Jesus
was born. It is within a day's ride on horseback of
Mount Carmel and within four hours of Capernaum on
the Sea of Galilee from which our Saviour called His
apostles and where He first preached.

Nazareth lies in a nest in the mountains. It is in a
little amphitheatre of hills with a rough and ragged arena.
The houses extend up the sides of the hills and there is
hardly a level spot in the whole town. It has altogether
less than twelve thousand inhabitants of whom about
half are Mohammedans. The rest of the population is
made up of Greek Catholics, Latins, and about two hun-
dred Syrians of the Protestant faith. The town is full of
churches and convents, and there are some great mon-
asteries and hospices where pilgrims may stop over night.

The homes of the people are rectangular structures,
which look more like great stone boxes than houses.
They are usually of one story, with a door and two win-
dows, and most of them have flat roofs, which in the

177

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

summer nights are used as resting and sleeping places.
A number of the buildings are in gardens. Some have
cactus hedges about them and others are shaded by cypress
trees. There are many olive orchards, and figs grow here
as luxuriantly as they did when Christ was a boy.

The buildings of Nazareth are ugly, but as a whole the
city and its surroundings are beautiful. I doubt whether
there is more beautiful scenery to be found in England or
Scotland, or even in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Vir-
ginia, for which God has done much. There are many
fine views. One can stand in the city or near it and look
out over the plain of Esdraelon, and by climbing the hills
he can see Mount Carmel, where Elijah hid the prophets
and later on slew the false prophets of Baal. It is only a
few hours' ride from Nazareth over the hill to the Sea of
Galilee, where the Nazarene boys even now sometimes go
fishing.

I shall not soon forget a bird's-eye view I had of the town
last night. The moon was at its full, and its great round
silver disk changed the night into day. Its rays mel-
lowed the yellow limestone of the houses and transformed
them to ivory. They softened the glare of the white,
rocky roads, and made a fairyland of the mountains and
valleys. From the top of the hills I could see the plain of
Esdraelon, which in its fertility vies with the Nile Valley;
and away off at the west lay the mighty Mediterranean,
which stretches on for two thousand miles to Gibraltar
and the Atlantic.

Nazareth by moonlight is wonderfully peaceful. At
sunset all business stops, and within an hour or so after-
ward everyone is in bed. There are few places that
seem so far from the strife of the world. Business is

i78

WHERE OUR SAVIOUR SPENT HIS BOYHOOD

swallowed up in the beauties of nature. The scenery is
that of old Greece, and the stars shine gloriously out of
skies which are perfectly clear.

The sunsets are surpassingly beautiful. The other
night the golden beams of the sinking sun seemed to form a
halo over this the home of our Saviour. There were many
white clouds in the sky, which changed, first to rose and
then to gold, the colour growing stronger and stronger,
until the whole west was one blaze of fire and molten copper.

Coming down into the town, after watching one of these
sunsets, I met many Nazarene children. As I stopped
a few minutes, the little ones gathered around me, and it
was not hard to imagine similar groups playing in these
streets nineteen hundred years ago with the boy Jesus.
The little Nazarenes wore gowns of brown, red, or yellow.
Most of them were in their bare feet; the boys had caps
of red felt, while the girls wore handkerchiefs or shawls
tied around their heads. All were running and dancing
and laughing and playing. Some of the girls were quite
pretty. I remember a rosy-cheeked baby carried by a
roguish, bright-eyed maid of eighteen. I admired the
baby and chucked it under the chin, telling the girl I
would like to take it home with me to America. She
promptly said I could have it and thrust it out toward
me. My face fell and I ran.

There is no doubt that this is the Nazareth of Jesus,
and that the hills and valleys about here were hallowed
by His footsteps. It was here that the Angel Gabriel
appeared unto Mary when she was engaged but not yet
married to Joseph and told her that she would be the
mother of Jesus, and it was here that she came with Joseph
after the flight into Egypt. She waited only until King

179

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

Herod was dead, and then came to Nazareth, the child
Jesus being still an infant in arms. It was from Nazareth
that Jesus went to the Jordan to be baptized by John,
and it was here that after He had begun His work our Lord
came and preached in the synagogue. Whereupon the
Nazarenes cried out :

Is not this Joseph's son? . . . And . . . they . . .
were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city and
led Him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built that they
might cast Him down headlong. But He passing through the midst
of them went His way.

The Roman Catholics now own what is said to be the
site of the shop where Joseph worked as a carpenter.
The place is in the Mohammedan quarter, not far from a
bazaar where the Moslem merchants sit cross-legged and
sell to the Christians. When I visited it I met Father
Kersting, who came here to superintend excavations on
the site of an old church built by the Crusaders.

Under his direction a grotto was uncovered which many
believe to be the place where Joseph had his carpenter
shop, and where, if this is true, the little Christ must have
played among the shavings.

The various sects here make all sorts of claims. The
Latins allege that they own the table upon which Christ
supped with His disciples both before and after the
Resurrection. It is a block of hard chalk eleven feet long
and nine feet in breadth. In another place in the Latin
monastery is what is known as the Angel's Chapel and the
Chapel of the Annunciation, where the Virgin received Ga-
briel's message. There is also an old cistern which is called
the Kitchen of the Virgin, and in the centre of the town is
Mary's Well, or, as it is sometimes called, Jesus's Spring,

1 80

Capernaum to-day is the city of prophecy fulfilled, for of it Christ said:
"And thou, Capernaum, . . . shall be brought down to hell"

For centuries the Jews have been city-dwellers and traders, but the
colonists are doing the manual labour on the lands they have taken up,
though at first they brought down on themselves the reproaches of their
neighbours by hiring Arabs

WHERE OUR SAVIOUR SPENT HIS BOYHOOD

or Gabriel's Spring. This is undoubtedly authentic, for
it is the only spring or watering place Nazareth now
possesses or ever has possessed. It is therefore certain
that the child Jesus and the Virgin frequented it, and that
Mary came here daily for water. This is a fountain
rather than a well. The water gushes forth in two
streams into a stone basin, whence it flows into a stone-
inclosed pool. There are always women with water
jars about it, and the scenes of to-day are probably the
same as those of Christ's time.

Thousands of pilgrims come to Nazareth every year to
visit the places hallowed by the Saviour, and it is also on
the main route from the mountains of Lebanon to Je-
rusalem. Caravan routes from Damascus to Egypt wind
about it, and it has always been an important point on
the chief travel routes.

The bazaars are of about the same character as they
were in Jesus's day. They are narrow, cave-like stores
lighted only from the front. The merchants sit there
walled around with goods, while the customers stand out
in the cobblestone roadway and bargain. The streets
are dirty and camels and Bedouins are continually mov-
ing through them. The men wear turbans and gowns,
and the women are veiled or unveiled, according to
whether they are Mohammedans or Christians.

I was interested in the mechanical work going on in
these bazaars. I stopped in a carpenter's shop, and
photographed a workman of just about the age Joseph
must have been when our Lord was a boy and passed as
his son. I asked about carpenter's wages, and was told
they ranged from fifty cents to one dollar per day. In
another business street I stopped awhile with the black-

181

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

smiths who were making knives, razors, plough points, and
the long, thin, crescent-shaped sickles used here for har-
vesting. The sickles have teeth like a fine saw. I lin-
gered to watch a blacksmith shoe a horse. He used a
plate of iron the shape of the hoof about an eighth of an
inch thick. With the exception of a hole as large as a
finger ring in the centre, it was solid. There were three
small holes on each side for the nails, which were driven
into the hoof. When shod the horse's foot was entirely
covered by iron except for the small hole in the centre.

Since I have been here I have paid especial attention
to the children. They are the best part of the Holy
Land and are as full of fun and as delightful as our chil-
dren at home. I have seen families which recall that of
Joseph and Mary, and many boys with innocent faces
which suggest that of Jesus. Here in Nazareth I see the
little ones everywhere playing. There is a threshing-
floor on one side of the town, a place where the earth has
been stamped down and where the grain is flailed or trod-
den out after harvest. This is one of the great play-
grounds, where the boys come with their marbles and
where they play ball. In one of their games the boys
try to throw the ball so as to hit a stone mark set up for
the purpose. They also strike the ball with a club and
send it beyond the threshing-floor to be caught by the
boys outside. They play blind man's buff, leap-frog, and
hide-and-seek, and as I went through the streets the other
day I saw two little ones rising and falling on a board
resting on the edge of a sharp stone, making a seesaw.

One of the games played is like our " Button, button,
who has the button?" The boys stand in a row with
hands folded and the one who is "it" goes along and rubs

182

WHERE OUR SAVIOUR SPENT HIS BOYHOOD

his two hands, holding the pebble over each pair of folded
hands and endeavouring to drop it into one without being
caught. Then the others must guess who has the peb-
ble. We play the same game with the button.

Another game is known as the "tied monkey. " In
this the boy who is "it" catches hold with one hand of
a rope fastened to a peg in the ground while the others
beat him with handkerchiefs or ropes in which knots are
tied. If he can catch one of them without letting go his
hold on the rope the boy caught takes his place.

I observe that the boys here usually play by them-
selves. They rather look down on their sisters, and the
average family considers the girl of but little account.
When a girl is born no fuss is made, but when a boy comes
the friends of the family run through the streets crying
out: "Good tidings! Good tidings!" The father pre-
pares a feast, and all the friends of the family give
presents of money for the benefit of the boy. Imme-
diately after the child is born it is rubbed over with salt
and then wrapped in swaddling clothes so tight that it
cannot move. After it has been bound up thus for about
a week, it is unfastened, washed with fresh oil, salted,
and bound up again. This wrapping, oiling, salting, and
re-wrapping goes on for about forty days, at the end of
which time the child is ready to wear the ordinary cloth-
ing of babyhood. This usually consists of one garment,
but in the summer, if the child be poor, that is omitted,
although a naked baby may wear a skull cap. The usual
garment is a shirt reaching to the knees, and as the chil-
dren grow older they may have jackets over their shirts.

One of the important ceremonies is naming the boy.
To the child's given name that of the father is always

183

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

added. In olden times if the son of James was named John,
his name would be John, son of James, but now the words
"son of" are omitted and he is known as John James.

I am surprised at the beauty of the Nazarene girls, and
especially of the little ones. They have rosy cheeks and
bright eyes and are quite as good looking as our American
babies. They dress in bright colours and some have rows
of coins on their headdresses and rings on their fingers.

I see many little girls at the fountain of Mary, each
with a jar in which to bring water home. This is the
work of almost every woman in the land. The little ones
are taught by beginning with a tiny jar which they
steady on the head with the hand. As they grow older
they use larger jars, until at last they are able to walk
through the streets carrying four or five gallons of water
on the head without touching the jar. This work gives
them erect figures, and there are no stooped shoulders
or curved spines among them.

When a girl reaches ten or eleven years of age she be-
gins to think of marriage, and it is not an uncommon
thing for her to be a mother at thirteen or fourteen.
After marriage the wife becomes a member of her hus-
band's family, and, for a time at least, lives with her
mother-in-law. For this reason people believe in early
marriages, so that the girl may be trained by her hus-
band's mother into a suitable wife when she grows up.

I wonder if the boys of our Saviour's time studied as do
the Nazarene boys of to-day. As half the town is Mo-
hammedan, many of them are taught by the sheiks.
They sit on the floor, swaying back and forth as they
scream out the verses and texts they are trying to learn.
The teacher is sometimes blind, but he knows the voices

184

WHERE OUR SAVIOUR SPENT HIS BOYHOOD

so well that when one stops he can strike with his stick
the place where that boy should be sitting to start him
again. In our Lord's time the Bible was probably taught in
the same way to the Jewish children. Most of the slates
used here are made of cast-off kerosene oil cans, the tin
being cut into squares and pounded out flat. The
Arabic characters are painted upon such tins with brushes
and India ink.

The chief study of the Mohammedan boys is the Koran,
while the Jews learn the Psalms. At harvest time the
schools close and the children go out into the fields, gar-
dens, and vineyards. They are accustomed to work, and
everywhere I go I see them herding the sheep. The boys
use slings just as David did and are skilful in sending the
stones just where they please.

Some of these Palestine children are polite, but others
are just the reverse. When the good boy comes into a
room full of older people he goes around and kisses the
hand of each one and places it on his forehead. He can
be so sweet that you might think him the soul of innocence
and piety, but take him outside and he will fight, kick,
and scratch with his fellows. A great deal of slang is
used, and in a quarrel the most common expressions are
those cursing your enemy's ancestors. One boy will
say to another, "Curse your father!" and the other will
reply, "And your grandfather!'' And so they will go
on to the fourth and fifth generations, each cursing the
various branches of the other's family. Here at Naz-
areth we find the children very polite, but at Nablus
they threw stones at me and called me a "Nazarene,"
the name used by the Mohammedans of Samaria to ex-
press contempt for all not of their faith.

185

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

From Nazareth, Joseph and Mary went every year to
Jerusalem. They tramped over the hills of Galilee and
across the plain of Esdraelon, then climbed the moun-
tains of Samaria. There is a trail, part of which has been
made into a macadamized road. Such trips were usually
made in large companies, and when I crossed Samaria a
short time ago I met scores of these people from Galilee
on their way to Jerusalem. The parties consisted of
men, women, and children, most of whom were on foot.
Now and then one found a woman riding a donkey, with
her husband trudging beside her, and sometimes whole
families on donkeys. It was in such a party that Jesus
went to Jerusalem when He was about twelve years of
age. He was then thought to be old enough to take care
of Himself, for the Bible relates that when they departed
Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem, and Joseph and His
mother knew not of it. They had already gone a day's
journey before they missed Him, and then turned back
to find Him. Only after three days was He discovered
in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, both
hearing them and asking them questions.

And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and
answers.

And when they saw him they were amazed. And his mother said
unto him: Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father
and I have sought thee, sorrowing.

And he said unto them: How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not
that I must be about my father's business?

And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them. And
he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto
them. But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God
and man.

1 86

CHAPTER XXIII

ON THE SEA OF GALILEE

WE ARE in a fisherman's skiff on the Sea of
Galilee. We have just left Tiberias, the
ancient city of Herod near the southern
end of the lake, and are on our way to
Capernaum, that white spot which you can see on the shore
at the north where Christ lived and preached. It seems
strange that one can carry the whole Sea of Galilee in his
eye. I have always thought of it as only a little less than
an ocean, or at least as big as the largest of our great fresh-
water lakes. The truth is that compared to Lake Mich-
igan it is only a puddle. It is about half as large as
Lake Cayuga, at Ithaca, New York, and standing on any
of the hills rising precipitously about it one can plainly
see the whole body of water.

This so-called sea is only six miles wide at its widest
part from east to west, and from where the Jordan flows
in at the north to the place where it empties out at the
south the distance is a scant thirteen miles. The sea
lies in the depression of the Jordan Valley, the river
forming a winding canal two hundred miles long which
connects it with the Dead Sea at the south.

Lake Superior is a little more than six hundred feet
above the level of the ocean. The Sea of Galilee is more
than six hundred and eighty feet ,below that level and lies

187

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

in a nest of beautiful mountains which slope up from the
water in picturesque shapes.

Over there at the west the shores are bright green and
are spotted with wild flowers. The grass makes a wav-
ing sheet of emerald velvet which seems almost to reach
the fleecy white clouds of the blue sky above.

Farther to the south are the Galilean mountains, now
gray in the morning sun, with masses of smoky clouds
hanging over them. They are full of water; and as I
look, lo! the rain comes. The sun is still shining and has
painted a rainbow over that part of the lake covering
the town of Magdala, which, as you remember, was
Mary Magdalen's home.

Looking through the rainbow you can catch sight of
the Mount of the Beatitudes where our Saviour sat when
He preached the Sermon on the Mount. On the sloping
little hill at the left it is said He commanded the weary
multitude to sit down on the grass and fed the five
thousand.

Now look eastward to the lands on the opposite sides
of the lake and the Jordan. They rise straight up from
the water. The hills are so steep that it would be almost
impossible to climb them, and they are ragged and
rough. That is the land of the Gadarenes, where our
Lord cast out the devils into the swine which ran vio-
lently down a steep place into the sea.

All about us are the most familiar scenes of the Scrip-
tures. Every bit of these shores has been hallowed; and
as we look the figures of the Old and New Testaments
spring into life. It is impossible to read the Bible in
the Holy Land and not feel that its people were real
men and women. The apostles had the same feelings as

1 88

In a galvanized iron shack, the home of newly arrived colonists, the
bread of Bible times is made by a Jewess from modern Europe. Pales-
tine, as a national home, has had a special appeal to the persecuted Jews
of Poland and southeastern Europe

Near the waters of Lake Meron, where Joshua smote the Philistines,
we see to-day the new farmer of Palestine and his transportation. At
last even the roads of that backward land are being improved so that
motor cars may go over them

ON THE SEA OF GALILEE

ours; they lived in a world much the same; they
breathed the same air; they loved and sorrowed as we do
to-day.

I doubt not our Lord appreciated the beauties of
Galilee. Its scenery is as picturesque as that of any lake
in the Alps, and its loveliness changes every hour of the
day. I saw the sun set last night. The clouds hung
heavy over the hills to the east of the Jordan and the sun
gilded the top of the Mount of the Beatitudes as it went
down in the west. A little before that these waters were
a glorious yellow which faded away into a rich copper
bronze. At the same time the heavens were burnished
copper, cloud piled upon cloud, and the whole was mir-
rored in the glassy surface beneath. The Sea of Galilee
has always been noted for its wonderful beauty. It was
a pleasure resort at the time of Herod Antipas, and the
palaces of Tiberias and Capernaum were famous all over
the East.

Later on I had still another view of the lake. It was
moonlight on the Sea of Galilee. The great round
queen of the heavens, her golden face at its full, shone out
of a mass of dark blue with black clouds behind it. The
rays of the moon striking the sea obliquely painted a
wide path of silver running from the hills of Gadara across
the waters to Tiberias. I gazed at the scene from the
window of my hotel over the minarets of a Mohammedan
mosque. It reminded me of Lake Como and of some
Scottish lakes.

As we ride up the lake to-day I watch closely the
fishermen handling our craft. We are in a skiff about
thirty feet long and four feet wide. It has a white leg-
of-mutton sail which is filled by the wind from the south,

189

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

and we are speeding over the water. Our boat leaves
a pathway of diamonds dropped there by the sun. I
reach over the side of the boat and let my hand trail in
the water. It is cool. I dip up some in my palm and
taste it. It is quite brackish.

Now the fishermen have laid their oars across the sides
of the boat. They are depending on the wind to carry
us onward. Some are asleep, among them one at the prow
who lies with bare legs outspread, his bronzed face in the
full glare of the sun. He is snoring. At the right is a
man mending a net, while on the other side of the boat
two are chatting. The scene might have been one on
this same lake nineteen centuries ago, when Christ
called men like these from their boats to be "fishers of
men."

By and by the subject of fishing comes up. Thinking
of the great draught which Simon Peter and the other
apostles drew up when they cast their nets at the com-
mand of our Lord at the time He appeared to them here
after His crucifixion, I ask if there are still many fish in
the lake. They tell me that the sea is alive with good
fish and that quantities are carried to Nazareth and
other Galilean towns every week. Some are sent to
Damascus by railroad and some are salted and shipped
off to Jerusalem. About a year ago a party took five
tons of fish in one day. The catch was so great that fish
sold in Tiberias for one cent apiece, and six pounds or
more could be bought for a penny. All along the lake
there are fishing villages where the fishermen are still
to be seen dragging their nets or mending them as they
float near the shore. I am told that there are three ways
of fishing. One is by hook and the others are by nets.

190

ON THE SEA OF GALILEE

One kind of net is cast. It is used from the shores by the
fishermen wading breast deep into the water. The net
is a great ring or disk of thread weighted with lead. As
it sinks, it takes the shape of a dome, falling upon the
fish it incloses. The fisherman dives down and draws
the leads together and carries net and catch to the
banks. Much fishing of this kind is done near Magdala.
Another net is a dragnet, with floats at the top and leads
at the bottom. This is usually worked from a boat
dragging the net so that it forms a loop and scoops in
the fish. Among the fish caught are excellent bass, some
of which we have had at the hotel. An especially curious
fish is that known as the chromts simonis, the male of
which carries the eggs and the young about in its mouth.

The storms come up quickly on Galilee. I have seen
several since I arrived in Tiberias and have experienced
one or two on the sea. It was during one of these storms,
when they were crossing the sea, that the apostles came
to our Lord, who was sleeping, and begged him to save
them. He arose and rebuked the waters, and lo, it was
calm.

At the time of another storm He was not with them,
having gone up into a mountain apart to pray. The ship
was in the midst of the sea, tossed by the waves, when
the disciples saw Him walking on the water. They were
troubled, and, thinking Him a spirit, cried out for fear.
Then Jesus said: "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not
afraid."

And you remember how when Peter tried to go to
Him, and when he saw the wind boisterous, his heart
failed him and he began to sink, Jesus stretched forth
His hand and caught him, saying: "O thou of little

191

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" And when they were
come into the ship the wind ceased.

But our wind also has dropped. The boatmen are
lowering the sails and we are gliding to the shores of
Capernaum. They are now covered with rich meadows,
with here and there ploughed fields and crops of fast-grow-
ing grain. From the boat we can see no signs that a city
once stood on the spot. The only evidence of life is a
low, gray, one-story monastery belonging to the Francis-
cans, who are excavating the ruins and digging temples
and synagogues out of the soil. They own several hun-
dred acres running along the beach and extending for
perhaps a mile up the hills. Some of their lands are under
cultivation, and there are orchards of lemons, oranges,
and almonds to the east of their buildings.

Landing at the wharf we enter a door in the walls
which surround the excavations. I introduce myself to
Father Wenderlin, an austere-looking priest who speaks
German. He takes me around and shows me the results
of the work. He says they are digging up what is be-
lieved to be the actual synagogue where Jesus Christ
taught when He came here from Nazareth. As you
must remember, Capernaum was His home. It was
from here that He found most of His disciples and here
He cured Simon's wife's mother who lay sick of a fever.
Here, disgusted with the wickedness of the city, He said:

And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto Heaven shall be
brought down to hell; for if the mighty works which have been done
in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day.

The prophecy then uttered has long since come to
pass. The city of Capernaum is not.

192

The prayer niches of the Grand Mosque of Damascus are marvels
in mosaics. Marble and wood are inlaid with gold, silver, precious stones,
and glass. They were presented to the mosque by pious and wealthy
Mohammedans as thankofTerings for Divine favour

In this Mohammedan cemetery in Damascus lies Fatima, daughter
of the Prophet, and also two of the Prophet's wives. On Thursdays the
women of the city come to mourn at the graves

ON THE SEA OF GALILEE

The ruins of the synagogue show the splendour of the
ancient city. I walked around its boundaries. It was
fifty-four feet long and seventy-two feet wide. Its
front, which faced the sea, had a great many marble
columns, and it was built in two stories, the upper of
which was for the women. The pillars are three feet
thick, smoothly finished and exquisitely carved. The
marble work is that common in Rome shortly before the
time of Christ, and much of it is uninjured.

So far only a small portion of the site of Capernaum
has been explored. There are a thousand acres or so
left that in all probability contain ruins which, when
exposed, may cast new light upon the days and time of
the Saviour. The Franciscan monks will not permit
relics to be taken away, and they forbid the use of cam-
eras. Father Wendelin carries a long black snake whip
with him, and I am told that he uses it if he is not obeyed.
The other day a woman tourist brought in a camera
under her coat and, notwithstanding his objections, took
a snapshot, whereupon he is said to have laid hold of
her and thrown her out of the place.

I am stopping at Tiberias in a little German hotel
where I have a comfortable room looking out on the
water. Tiberias is the largest settlement on the sea.
It lies on the western shore at the southern end, within
a mile or so of the Horns of Hattin where it is said Christ
delivered the Sermon on the Mount. It is only a short
sail from where the Jordan flows out to the Dead Sea,
and from Semakh, where the railroad now goes north
on its way from Haifa to Damascus.

The city was the capital of Galilee, and it was at the
height of its prosperity when Christ was living at Caper-

193

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

naum. It was founded by Herod Antipas, the son of
Herod, the baby killer, and was named after the Roman
Emperor Tiberias. It was constructed while Christ was
living in Nazereth, and was a new and thriving city dur-
ing His residence at Capernaum. It is doubtful that He
even visited it, for the Bible does not mention His
doing so.

The city had a palace and a race course in those days,
and after the destruction of Jerusalem it became the
chief seat of the Jewish nation. It is still one of the
three holy cities of the Jews and it has many Israelites
among its citizens. They go about in long coats and
caps bound with fur, and are noted for their piety and for
their knowledge of the Talmud. Many of them are
Spanish Jews who have come here to live on account of
the holiness of the city.

The Tiberias of to-day is not attractive. It is a mass
of gray stone and brick buildings, with flat roofs painted
white. The streets are narrow and filthy and smell to
heaven. The Arabs have a saying that the king of the
fleas lives here. The human population is something
like eight thousand, of whom about two thirds are Jews
and the remainder Mohammedans and Christians. The
Jews have ten synagogues and there is also a Moham-
medan mosque. The northern limits of the place are
marked by the ruins of the Roman town, and the re-
mains of its walls and a gate are still standing.

The hot springs on the shores of the lake a half mile
from the city, which were famous in the days of the
Romans, are still used. They are in many respects
similar to those of Carlsbad, the waters containing sul-
phur, chloride of magnesia, and iron. They are good for

194

ON THE SEA OF GALILEE

skin diseases, and if they were under American manage-
ment might be made to pay well. One of the most in-
teresting and valuable institutions in this city is the
hospital belonging to the Scottish missionaries. It has
thousands of patients a year and is doing great good.

I came here from Nazareth riding over the mountains
of Galilee. The road is fairly good, although it is up and
down hill all the way. About six miles from Nazareth I
stopped at the village of Cana where our Lord was a
guest at the wedding feast and turned the water into
wine. I even saw the stone jars or tubs which the people
who own one of the churches there say were the jars
used for that miracle. They are kept inside the church,
and it took several fees to get to them. They are great
limestone receptacles, looking much like mortars, and it
is likely that wheat was ground in them by means of a
pestle.

I also visited the spring at Cana. As there is only
one, it must have been from there that the water which
was turned into wine was obtained. Four camels, six
sheep, and two cows were drinking at it as I stopped, and
a half-dozen girls with water-bags were waiting for their
family supply. It is probable that Cana was much
larger and more prosperous in the days of our Saviour
than now.

195

CHAPTER XXIV

THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT

THERE are fifteen million Jews in the world to-
day, scattered over the face of the earth. Their
ancestors once lived and ruled in Palestine, a
country now no bigger than our own state of
Vermont. For centuries, while peoples of alien faiths
possessed their ancient land, each Jew kept warm in his
bosom a belief that the Promised Land would one day be
restored to him and the Holy City rebuilt to the glory of
Jehovah.

During the last century Jews the world over began to
discuss practical means for making the age-long dream
of their people come true. This discussion grew into an
organized movement which has rolled up in size like a
snowball. Zionism, as it is called, is giving the states-
men of Christendom, as well as the Jew and the
Mohammedan, a mighty problem to wrestle with. It in-
volves the biggest colonization scheme since the settle-
ment of America, as well as religious and political
controversies likely to keep the world stirred up for a
good many years to come.

This little country has been the battleground of the
nations since long before the time of Moses. Egyptian
and Hittite, Assyrian, Persian and Greek, Roman and
Arab, the Crusader and the Turk have succeeded one
another in their conquests. In the World War another

196

It was down this wall, they say in Damascus, that the Apostle Paul
was lowered in a basket at night when he escaped from his Jewish enemies
in that city

The Street called Straight, the most famous in Damascus, like most
of the old streets of the Orient, is made narrow to secure shade from the
hot sun. Besides, it is roofed over, so that it is like a dimly lighted tunnel

THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT

name was added to the long list, that of the Briton, who
drove out the Turk. Under a mandate John Bull took
over the rule of Palestine, and the holy places of three
great religions, Christianity, Mohammedanism, and Juda-
ism, came under his trusteeship.

The British Government proclaimed its intention to
"favour the establishment in Palestine of a national
home for the Jewish people" and to "use their best en-
deavour to facilitate the achievement of this object."
At the same time they promised that nothing should be
done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of the
Christians and the Moslems in the Holy Land, nor to hurt
the position of Jews in other countries. In this way the
British became the chief sponsors of Zionism, while other
great nations, including our own United States, expressed
themselves more or less formally in sympathy with
the aims of the movement. The British appointed a
Jew, Sir Herbert Samuel, first High Commissioner of
Palestine, and promised to cooperate with the inter-
national Zionist organization in working out Palestine
affairs.

I have told you of the Jewish colonies I have seen in
the Holy Land. When the first colony was founded there
were not enough Jews in all Palestine to hold a prayer
meeting. Under Zionism their number rapidly increased,
and within three years after British control there were more
than seventy-five thousand Jews in the Holy Land, with
about sixteen thousand living in the colonies. But the
number of Jews forms only about one tenth of the total
population, four fifths of whom are Moslems, with about
the same number of native Christians as Jews. After
the war Jews poured in for a time at the rate of fifteen

197

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

hundred a month, and thousands more are eager to come
as soon as permitted.

The founder of the Zionist movement was Dr. Theodore
Herzl, who called together the first world congress of
Jews. He travelled over Europe for many years, getting
the leading men of his time interested in Zionism. The
Pope received him, and so did the Kaiser, while Joseph
Chamberlain in England gave his support to the move-
ment. He had two interviews with the Sultan of Turkey,
Abdul Hamid, on whom he made such an impression that
the Sultan once said:

"That is a good man. As he looks, so I imagine the
Christ must have looked." Some of the Jews called
Herzl the "Twentieth Century Messiah."

I once had a talk with Israel Zangwill, one of the most
famous Zionists, about this Jewish movement. He said:

"We Jews have always hoped that Palestine would
again belong to us. This hope has lasted for more than
two thousand years, and from time to time various proj-
ects based upon it have been formed to repossess the land.
Nearly all of these have been visionary and many of
them have been founded upon the second coming of a
Messiah who should suddenly rise and lead us, in some
miraculous way, back to our Mother Country. Many
Jews confidently believe that will occur. At present the
Jews are scattered all over the earth. There are more
than fifteen million of them. About ten million are in
Russia and the other countries of eastern Europe. As
it is now, the Jews are congested in the large cities.
London has many times the number in the Holy Land,
and there are at least twice as many Jews in New York
as the whole population of Palestine. Chicago has a

198

THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT

quarter of a million, and Philadelphia more than two
hundred thousand. New York City has the largest
Ghetto of the world, and adds to it by thousands of im-
migrants a year.

"We were once an agricultural and pastoral people,"
continued Mr. Zangwill, "and we could make Palestine
again a land of milk and honey. We should like to have
the country as a Jewish colony, made up of our own peo-
ple, where we could govern ourselves in our own way.
We should not object to being colonially dependent upon
some great power, but we want home rule and a national
home of our own."

There are really three kinds of Zionists, and the Jews
themselves are divided. Some would be satisfied to make
Jerusalem merely the centre of their religion and of
Hebrew culture. A larger number want Palestine to be
a place of refuge, where Jews from all over the world
may live in freedom from political, religious, or economic
oppression. But a still larger number will not be satis-
fied until there is set up in Palestine a Jewish state, with
Jew7s in control of the land, the government, and the
holy places. These Jews say they wish to do full justice
to the other natives of Palestine, with whom they be-
lieve they can live in peace, and expect the British to re-
tain control until the Jews form a majority of the popu-
lation. To put through this programme powerful Jewish
organizations have set out to raise a fund of one hundred
and twenty-five million dollars in five years.

The non-Jewish people of Palestine have objected to
the Zionist scheme, and demanded of the British that all
Jewish immigration be stopped for ten years. Chris-
tians and Moslems in Palestine have wasted no love on

199

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

one another, but the prospect of a great wave of Jewish
settlers united them to the extent that a Moslem-Chris-
tian league was formed, whose members agreed to sell
no land to Jews. Nevertheless, the Jews have continued
to increase their land holdings, but the British have lim-
ited the number of Jewish immigrants who can come into
Palestine. At times the feeling between Jew and non-Jew
has been so acute as to result in riots in which many
people were killed.

The Moslems say that the Jews have no right to Pales-
tine since their people have not lived there for nearly two
thousand years. The Zionist programme, they state, is
based on the theory that might makes right, and they
accuse the British of ignoring the wishes of the majority
in Palestine and consulting only the Jews, whom the
Moslems outnumber almost ten to one.

They complain that leaders of Jewish organizations in
other countries have more influence in Palestine affairs
than the native Palestinians themselves, and say that
some of them are sending communists to the Holy Land
to stir up class warfare.

The Zionists feel that what the Jews have already done
in Palestine goes far to justify their aim to make it a
Jewish homeland. "Our people," they say, "have es-
tablished over seventy colonies on land, much of which
was reclaimed from swamp and sand. They have cre-
ated gardens and orchards where once was waste. They
have started modern schools, and the first act of the
Zionists under British control was to lay the cornerstone
of a national Jewish university in Jerusalem. They have
put in sanitary improvements in their villages, opened
hospitals and given medical service to Jew and Gentile

200

THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT

alike. They have started new industries, and are pre-
paring to harness the water power of the Jordan so as to
make it possible to irrigate the land and furnish elec-
tricity for the whole country." These things, the Zion-
ists say, are but the beginning of further benefits to come
as the Jews flock back to the Promised Land and work
out their big programme.

There is plenty of room for Jews and Moslems, accord-
ing to Zionists, who estimate that the land could be made
to support from three million to five million people. But
one fourth of the land is now in use, and the population
is only about fifty to the square mile.

The Jews have begun to revive the Hebrew language in
Palestine. In Jerusalem, where most of the learned
gather, it is already spoken by many Jews from different
countries who find it their common tongue. Outside
Jerusalem it is not spoken so much, but it is being taught
in the Jewish schools. Before the war, German organ-
izations backing certain colonies and schools tried to
compel the use of German in the Polytechnic Institute built
at the foot of Mount Carmel, but succeeded only in starting
a great quarrel in which they were utterly defeated.

With the revival of the ancient language has come an
effort to revive Hebrew art. In the Bezalel Art and Craft
School of Jerusalem characters of the old Hebrew alpha-
bet have been made the basis for new designs in weaving
rugs and decorating vases. Young Jewish painters have
been attracted to Palestine to take part in this revival,
and musicians have begun to collect the old Hebrew
melodies. The ancient church council of the Sanhedrin,
told of in the Bible, has been set up again in Jerusalem,
with women admitted to its membership.

201

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

The Hadassah Medical Organization in Palestine, for-
merly called the American Medical Unit, now has three
hospitals and a dispensary maintained at a cost said to
be more than five hundred thousand dollars a year.
Hadassah grew out of an American organization of Jewish
women. Ten years ago it was a small society of one hun-
dred and ninety-three members. To-day it is a national
organization with a membership of fifteen thousand. It
is especially active in health work among children, and
in the care of mothers and infants, and it teaches
Palestine girls to be nurses. There were twenty-two
girls in the first class graduated from the nurses' train-
ing school.

Another thing the Zionists have done to help their
brethren in Palestine is to organize a bank, with a capital
of $800,000. They plan to make long-time loans to
farmers who have had to depend in the past on loans
from the Jewish organizations backing the colonies, or
on private lenders in Palestine. The latter have charged
interest at the rate of 10 per cent, and more.

But the Moslems say that all these activities on the part
of the Jew prove that political Zionism aims at nothing
less than Jewish control of the Holy Land and everything
and everybody in it. There is a story of an American
who found a Jewish friend weeping at the "Wailing
Place."

"What is the matter with you?" he asked.
"Me? I'm wailing!"

"What are you wailing for? Aren't there plenty of
Jews in Jerusalem? And haven't you got a Jew for a
governor?"

"Yes, I know, but I want the Mosque of Omar."

202

THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT

There are also Jews who favour a more moderate
Zionism, and fear that setting up a Jewish state will
make trouble both in Palestine and in the countries where
Jews are now citizens with a part in business and public
afTairs.

203

CHAPTER XXV

THE WORLD'S OLDEST CITY

STAND with me on the slope of the Lebanon Moun-
tains and take a look over Damascus. We have
| climbed the road cut out for Kaiser Wilhelm, the
Emperor of Germany, when he visited this region,
and are now on a bare lofty hill which the Mohammedans
consider one of the holy spots of the world. It is where
the prophet Mohammed stood and gazed at that mag-
nificent town, the Damascus of his day. After staying
here for hours, he turned away with a sigh, saying:

"I dare not go in. Man can enter paradise but once,
and if I go into Damascus, this paradise on earth, I shall
not be able to enter the paradise of the hereafter/'

According to the Mohammedans, Abraham first re-
ceived the divine revelation of the unity of God in Damas-
cus; and Josephus says that the town was founded by Uz,
the great-grandson of Noah. The Bible tells us that
Abraham had a steward who came from Damascus, and
we know that King David besieged and conquered the
place. There is no doubt that it is one of the oldest
towns, if not the very oldest, upon earth. It was in exist-
ence before the days of Rameses and Thebes, before
Alexandria sprang into greatness on the Mediterranean
shores, and while Nebuchadnezzar was chewing grass in
the gardens of Babylon. It was old long before Athens
had begun to be, was already gray-haired when Rome was

204

It is in the horse market that men foregather to trade and gossip or to
enjoy a cooling drink from such a bottle as is shown here

"O Allah, send customers," cry the bread sellers in Damascus, as they
squat in the street with their stock and scales

The beautiful rugs of the Orient are all hand-made, from
carding and spinning the wool to the long months of weaving
in the lovely patterns. But there is more time in the East
than we hustling Westerners ever find

THE WORLD'S OLDEST CITY

a baby, and antedates any of the cities of the present. It
is now one of the most thriving centres of the Moham-
medan world.

Damascus lies on the eastern side of the Lebanon Moun-
tains about one hundred and fifty miles northeast of
Jerusalem, and, as the crow flies, about fifty-three miles
from the Mediterranean Sea. It is an oasis city sur-
rounded by deserts. It is fed by two cold, clear rivers
flowing out of great springs in the mountains of Lebanon
and making green this sandy plain in which they are
lost. These rivers are the Abana and Pharpar of the
Bible. You remember how Naaman, the leper, referred
to them when Elisha told him to go and wash in the
Jordan seven times and his flesh would be clean. Where-
upon Naaman replied:

"Are not Abana and Pharpar rivers of Damascus better
than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them
and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage.

You remember also how one of his servants told Naaman
that Elisha was asking a little thing of him and how he
then went down and bathed in the murky Jordan, "and
his flesh came again, like unto the flesh of a little child,
and he was clean."

As we stand on the hill of Mohammed at the north-
west end of the city and look at Damascus we do not
wonder at Naaman's contempt of the Jordan. We have
seen that the latter is a winding, rocky, semi-alkaline
stream which flows through a desert, the great gorge or
depression of Ghor. It has a scanty vegetation along
its banks and flows through a valley of death to the
great salt sea known as "The Dead." The Abana, or
Barada, as it is now called, and the Pharpar, now called

205

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

Barber, are pure mountain streams. The former is one
of the most beautiful of the whole world. I have trav-
elled along it almost to its source. It is a rushing river of
pure, clear green water which spreads life over all that it
touches. Together with the Barber it makes green the
great plain which lies below us and builds up the orchards
of almonds, apricots, apples, and the rich crops which
cover it, as well as the white city of Damascus rising in
its centre.

Now turn your eyes to the city itself. There it lies
under these magnificent mountains with its luxuriant
gardens and orchards surrounded by deserts. Within and
without silver poplars cast their green shadows over the
houses. The town has been compared to a pearl. It is
shaped very like one. My guide, Shammas, who stands
beside me, tells me that it looks like a camel, and a
second glance shows me the head and neck of the beast
reaching out to a point where lies a railway station of
the road going to Mecca. The road itself is the long neck
of the camel and farther back is the body, the minarets
forming the hump. "Now look again," says Shammas,
"and see if it is not like a fan!" "Very much so," I reply,
"and it is also like a great spoon with a long slender
handle and large oval bowl."

To come down to details, Damascus is an expanse of
pearly white tinged with the pink of its roofs. The
buildings rise high over the green, and out of them, like
fingers pointing to heaven, are the minarets of two hun-
dred mosques, with the mighty dome of the Great Mosque
in the centre. At the right of the latter are the arched
roofs of bazaars which have been famous for ages, while
away off from the rest is a big yellow building with a

206

THE WORLD'S OLDEST CITY

roof of red tiles. That is the centre of Moslem fanati-
cism, where for centuries thousands of Mohammedan
soldiers have been quartered. At times, a few years
ago, even they have let loose their religious fury and
slaughtered Christians living in the city.

Damascus is a Mohammedan city. It has about three
hundred thousand people, four fifths of whom follow the
Prophet. It has also about thirty thousand Greeks, eight
thousand Jews, and lesser numbers of Syrians, Armen-
ians, Persians, and Druses. These people are very de-
vout. One sees them reading their Korans in their
shops, and at the mosques I have observed a score or more
of the Faithful washing themselves before they go into
their prayers. The mosques are full of turbaned men,
old and young, who pray singly and in groups, and in
many one finds companies of worshippers under a leader.
There are also many classes listening to the explanations
of the Koran by the priests, and there are men reading
by themselves.

But come down with me from the hill and take a stroll
through the city. This is Sunday, and we shall first
visit the mosques. There are seventy large ones, where
sermons are preached every Friday, and one hundred and
seventy-seven which might be called chapels, connected
with which are Mohammedan schools. Many of these
mosques have libraries, and in all of them the chief study
is theology, including the Koran and the traditions of the
prophets. After that comes law, then philosophy, logic,
and grammar. Modern sciences are unknown, and all
other branches of learning are entirely neglected.

One of the chief centres of Moslem religious life is the
Great Mosque. This is one of the finest of Mohammedan

207

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

churches. It stands in the centre of the city and covers
about seven acres, or almost twice as much space as the
Capitol at Washington. In the great court paved with
marble is a fountain, said to mark the half-way station
on the route from Constantinople to Mecca. It is there
that the worshippers bathe parts of their bodies before
going to their prayers. On the other side of this
enormous court is the mosque proper, the oblong floor
of which covers an acre. Many great columns uphold
its roof, and other columns stand between it and the
court.

Entering this room, we find two thousand men and per-
haps a hundred women at worship. Nevertheless, the
building seems empty. The worshippers are scattered
over the floor. The women are alone, and the men dare
not look at them. They are closely veiled and do not
notice us as we go by. Most of the men are on their
knees or sitting upon the floor. Before coming into the
church all have removed their shoes, which now lie be-
side or in front of them. The floor is covered with costly
rugs, presents from devout Mohammedans. Think of
roofing a large field, upholding the roof by mighty col-
umns, and then carpeting that field with oriental rugs
any one of which would be fit to hang upon your walls
as a treasure, and you have a suggestion of the picture
now before us.

There are strange things in the mosque. In its centre
is a marble chapel supposed to stand over the ashes of
the head of John the Baptist. Men are sitting before
the chapel with their heads toward Mecca, and they
rise and fall as they pray to John the Baptist, the fore-
runner of Christ, and to Mohammed as the prophet of

208

The transportation monopoly of the Bedouin and his camel is threatened
to-day by the invading automobile and motor truck

At the end of the Booksellers' Bazaar looms the Dome of the Mosque,
built amid the ruins of a Christian church, which was itself preceded on
the same site by a Roman temple

THE WORLD'S OLDEST CITY

God. Thus religion, like politics, makes strange bed-
fellows.

Damascus is the heart of the Mohammedan world.
At its back is Persia, altogether Mohammedan. At its
south are Palestine and Arabia, more Moslem than
Christian, while at the north are other realms of Islam.
All around it the people are Mohammedans, who hate
the Christians and massacre them whenever they can.
This was the case in the spring of 1909, when thousands
were killed and a terrible slaughter of Christians by
heathens took place in this region. Multitudes were
massacred, and it was only because the great Christian
nations of Europe were afraid of their pocketbooks and
of the loss of that balance of power which might result
from a war that the Turkish Empire was not wiped out
as a punishment therefor. The matter was hushed up,
and but little of the true story was told in the papers. I
refer to the bloodshed throughout Asia Minor when the
sultan, Abdul Hamid, was overthrown by the Young
Turks and his brother, Mohammed V, was put in his place.

Another strange object in the Great Mosque is the
holy tent of the pilgrim caravan. This is used during
the pilgrimage to Mecca, which generally starts at Damas-
cus. Every Moslem is bound to make this pious journey
at least once in his life, and the followers of the Prophet
gather here from all directions for the trip to their holy
city.

As they approach Mecca they take off their clothes,
laying aside everything from the soles of their feet to the
crowns of their heads. They then put on aprons, and
carrying only a piece of cloth over the left shoulder,
walk into the city. They march around the sacred

209

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

Kaaba and kiss the black stone. They pelt Satan with
rocks in the Valley of Mina, and end their pilgrimage
with a great sacrificial feast, at the end of their Lent,
when the festival of Beiram begins.

I have not seen these pilgrim caravans, but they are
said to be extremely interesting. Many of the rich go
on camel litters something like the mule litters used in
north China. These are beds slung between poles which
are fastened to camels, one going before and the other
behind and trained to keep step. The camels are adorned
for the occasion with coins, shells, and other ornaments,
besides hundreds of small bells which jingle as they march.
In advance of the procession is a large camel litter hung
with green cloth and embroidered with gold. This con-
tains the green flag of the Prophet and one of the oldest
copies of the Koran now in existence. In addition to the
worshippers themselves there is always an escort of sol-
diers and Bedouins. There are also many half-naked
dervishes who sing and howl and cut themselves, shouting
out texts from the Koran as they go on their way.

It is a question whether the railway from Damascus
to Mecca will not cause this great caravan to become a
thing of the past as far as the travel between Damascus
and Mecca is concerned.

During my stay here I have gone out to the cemetery
to see the tomb of Mohammed's favourite daughter Fa-
tima. Mohammed had several wives in addition to the
four which he allows to each of his followers. His first
wife was Khadija, the widow whose fortune made him
prominent and whose servant he was. As I remember
it, she was his first convert. Two of his other wives and
Fatima are buried here, and every Thursday many veiled

210

THE WORLD'S OLDEST CITY

women come to mourn at their graves. Fatima's tomb
is a little domed mosque about fifteen feet square with a
praying alcove facing toward Mecca. Her body lies in a
marble sarcophagus, which stands on a pedestal covered
with green velvet and with a piece of green cloth at its
head. As I looked at the tomb I saw several rags tied
to the bars of the window and was told that they were
put there as the pledges of sick persons, showing that they
would give money to the mosque if they should be cured.

The tomb of Saladin, the great Mohammedan general
who fought Europe during the Crusades, is also in Damas-
cus. It is in a small mausoleum attached to the Great
Mosque. At the head of the marble sarcophagus is a
glass case in which lies the golden wreath placed on Sa-
ladin's tomb by the German Kaiser. Because this
wreath had a cross worked into its design it gave deep
offence to the Damascenes, who demanded its removal
from the shrine. But the Kaiser's "great and good
friend," Sultan Abdul Hamid, ordered it to remain, as it
was placed there by the Emperor of Germany.

I have spent some time tracing the footsteps of St.
Paul, the apostle. You will remember that he was one
of the Jewish officials, and was "breathing out threaten-
ings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord"
when he got the high priest to give him letters to the syn-
agogues of Damascus, that he might bring such Chris-
tians as he found there to Jerusalem for trial. He was
on his way here and was not far from the city when the
light from heaven shone round him and blinded him, and
the Lord said unto him:

I am Jesus whom thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks.

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THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

You remember how the blind Paul, or Saul, as he was
then called, was led into Damascus to the house of a man
named Ananias, not the husband of Sapphira, however,
or any associate of the champion liar of history. You
recall, how, when he came there, he again received his
sight and, being converted, was baptized. It was the
house of this Ananias, according to Shammas and the
guide books, that I visited the other day. I found the
Ananias of the present by no means averse to a small
gift of silver. He took all my spare change and then
asked for more. I later discovered that the authenticity
of the house is questioned and there is another Ananias
house, which is now used as a chapel. I looked for the
house of Naaman the Syrian, and was shown an old
building occupied by lepers.

It was in the Street called Straight that Ananias met
Paul. This is one of the principal highways of the
Damascus of to-day. It leads from the chief gate on
the south to the bazaars and is about the only straight
street in the city. It goes right through Damascus and is
so wide that two or three carriages can pass on it. It is
the centre of traffic, and while there I saw caravans of
camels, donkeys, and horses bringing in and taking out
all kinds of goods. One line of camels was loaded with
poplar trees as long as telegraph poles. The ends of the
poles dragged in the road as they walked. Behind them
came donkeys with panniers of green cucumbers and
horses loaded with baskets of Jaffa oranges, each as big
as the head of a baby. A mule followed the horses. It
was loaded with butter from the interior packed in black
leather bottles of the shape and size of a tin dinner bucket.

St. Paul had a lively time in Damascus. He preached

212

THE WORLD'S OLDEST CITY

in the synagogue and confounded the Jews. After a while
the Jews took counsel to kill him, and they watched the
gates day and night for that purpose. It was then that
his friends took him by night and let him down over the
wall in a basket.

This very place is now shown, and I have made a
photograph of the spot. The wall is a great structure of
stone with a mud parapet on top. There is a house on
the top of the wall at the place indicated. This has
windows with great bars across them, and it is very easy
to imagine how St. Paul might have been let down from
such a place when he made his escape.

213

CHAPTER XXVI

SHOPPING IN THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT

Cus go this morning for a walk through the ba-
zaars of this the oldest of all the world's cities.
They are more oriental than those of Tunis or
Cairo and more quaint than those of Constan-
tinople.

Take the Street called Straight, up which St. Paul came
to meet Ananias. It is a vaulted tunnel where the only
light comes through little windows in the roof, which
rises to a height of about one hundred feet. Suppose you
could cover lower Broadway at the top of its third-story
windows, and in place of the doors and windows of plate-
glass have the walls made up of cave-like stores opening
out on the roadway. Let each store have a floor about
as high above the street level as the seat of a chair, and
let it be filled with the most gorgeous goods of the
Orient. Let each have its turbaned or fez-capped merchant
sitting on the floor at the front, with workmen similarly
dressed labouring away in the rear. The bazaars of Da-
mascus are made up of many such vaulted streets so roofed
that only dim light comes in through the little windows
high up overhead. The shops are mere holes in the
walls, but they are packed full of goods. The walls be-
tween them are little more than partitions of boards, and
there is hardly a business establishment where the tradi-
tional bull of the china shop could turn round without

214

SHOPPING IN STREET CALLED STRAIGHT

losing his hide. The customers bargain standing out in
the roadway, or sitting on the floors of the stores and
hanging their heels in the street.

Each trade has its own section and we walk for blocks
filled with booths containing only one kind of goods.
Here is the saddle bazaar. The air is heavy with the rich
smell of leather. Harness hangs from the walls, and in-
side are saddles for camels, donkeys, and horses. There
are gay trappings for Arabian steeds, and leather buckets
in which one can carry water with him over the desert.
There are also necklaces of blue beads to put on your
horses to ward off the evil eye, as well as other charms for
the journey.

The harness shops are twelve feet deep and each is a
little factory where two or three saddlers are at work.
In some places they are making harness of wool and in
others trappings of leather beautifully decorated.

A little farther on we come to a bazaar selling panniers
for camels and donkeys, while not far away is a street
where they handle nothing but shoes. The cobblers are
turning out footgear of wood, wool, and leather. They
are cutting out sandals somewhat like the rain shoes of
Japan. The finer ones, which are beautifully inlaid with
mother-of-pearl, are for the better class women. Such
shoes are used at home and when madame goes to the
bathhouse. They are worn without stockings. In an-
other place the merchants are selling shoes of red leather
such as are used by the country people and the poorer
Damascenes. They are of goatskin, camelskin, or cow-
hide, and have no heels. The leather is not very well
tanned, the shoes being kept on the lasts until sold.

The average shoe shop is about fifteen feet wide, ten

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THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

feet deep, and twelve feet in height. The stock is hung
to wooden nails driven into the walls both in and outside
the shop. The men customers stand in the street and
try on the shoes without the assistance of the merchant.
The women examine the shoes through the eye slits of
their veils and guess at the sizes.

A very odd boot is that worn by the Bedouins. It is
of goatskin dyed yellow or red and has heels of camelhide
with an iron strip running round each of them. This
boot reaches half way to the knee. None of the shoes
is made by machinery, and most of them are sewed
rather than pegged.

How would you like to have your hat blocked, ironed,
and brushed for a cent? That is what you can do in
Damascus. The hat bazaar has scores of shops for the
purpose. The most common cap is the red fez, a round
felt bowl which fits tight around the head without rim
or brim. It is about five inches high, and must be
pressed every few days to keep it in shape. The hatter
has a zinc-covered table in which are several small holes
filled with fires of burning charcoal. He has brass
frames or blocks over which the caps fit, and shells of
metal which may be clamped upon them to hold the fez
in form. After this the frame is laid over one of the fires,
and in a moment the heat gives the cap the latest and
most fashionable shape.

Other bazaars are devoted to the selling of silks and
still others to the finest of cloths. The wealthier Mo-
hammedans have their long robes made of the best pos-
sible stufTs, for they delight in rich garments. The
women shop in these bazaars. They peep out through
their veils as they examine the goods and will bargain an

216

SHOPPING IN STREET CALLED STRAIGHT

hour in buying a needle. I am told that they sometimes
raise their veils to entice the merchants to lower their
prices, but if so, I have not seen them, and I have been told
by my guide that if I wish to keep my head on my shoulders
I had best turn my eyes in another direction.

There is one Damascus bazaar where I walk carefully,
and as far as possible keep in midstreet. It is called the
Louse Market, and you may know why when I tell you
that it is devoted to second-hand clothes. The bazaar is
just back of the citadel and not far from the Straight
Street. From morning until evening it is filled with custom-
ers and dealers; auctioneers walk back and forth through
it, each carrying a garment which he holds up, asking for
bids. He praises his goods to the skies and tells the crowd
that he is willing to sell them for a song.

Yesterday I spent a short time in the booksellers' ba-
zaar, but my guide Shammas dragged me away, fearing
that we might be insulted and mobbed. The dealers are
such strict Mohammedans that they do not wish even to
sell to the Christians. The shops are near the gate of the
Great Mosque and among their wares are many copies
of the Koran. Picking one up, I asked the merchant
the price.

He scowled and angrily exclaimed: "Put it down! Put
it down ! We do not sell our holy books to the Christians/'

Thereupon, as I saw he was growing angry, I dropped
it, saying: "We Christians are glad to give or sell our
Bibles to any one, and as for your Korans, I can buy them
by the ton in New York or London."

The Moslems here are noted for their hatred of Chris-
tians, and one of the bloodiest massacres of modern times
occurred in Damascus about sixty years ago. The

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THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

people are little changed to-day, and they are about
as ignorant as they were then. The chief books
sold are religious. There are also some story books and
copies of the "Arabian Nights," either in parts or as a
whole.

During our trip through the bazaars we find the tastes
of the Mohammedan stomach everywhere in evidence.
These people like good food, and it seems to me they eat
from morning till night. Pedlars carrying candy, lem-
onade, and cakes march through the streets crying their
wares while bread men sit on the sidewalks with their
stocks. The most common bread is a flat, round cake as
thick as the buckwheats we have for breakfast, and a
foot or more in diameter. These cakes are white or
brown. They are so pliable that they can be doubled
up without breaking. They are often used to pick the
meats out of a stew. The Orientals do not use forks,
claiming that their own hands are much cleaner. They
have a saying that "everyone knows whether he has
washed his own hands, but no one knows who washed
the forks." Another kind of bread is like a gigantic
shoe sole without the heel, and another is a round biscuit
about an inch thick.

But here comes a man selling candy. Take a bite of
it and your mouth will flow water like the rivers which
feed this city and make fertile its plains. Damascus is
noted for its sweetmeats, and its candies are shipped far
and wide over the world. The sweets are sold in the
bazaars, some of the merchants having large shops.
There is one dear old turbaned sheik who has a cell in
the candy bazaar where you can buy nuts and fruits fit
for the queen of the fairies. His sugared almonds are

218

SHOPPING IN STREET CALLED STRAIGHT

the joy of the tourist, and his Turkish delight, a soft,
sweet, transparent paste, with pistachios and other small
nuts scattered through it, is a dish for the gods.

Stop a moment and listen to the cries of the pedlars.
Shammas will interpret them for us. Here is a man
selling bread hot from the oven. He yells: "Ya retfak" ,
or, "God, send me a customer," and follows by showing
a cake and saying, "All this for two cents." Another
coming behind cries out in Arabic: "Buy my bread and
the good God will nourish you," and a third says: "My
cakes are food for the swallows and the delight of tender
and delicate girls."

Here comes a lemonade man. He has a big glass jar
slung to his back with a neck so shaped that he can tilt
its contents into a cup. He has two brazen bowls which
he holds in his hands and rattles as he shouts: "Drink
and refresh thy heart." Another pedlar has ice-cream
the coolness of which he cries up in the words: "Balak
sunnak," or "Take care of your teeth," meaning it is
so cold it will make your teeth ache. Fruit is sold the
same way, as well as cooked meats of various kinds.
There is one salad which the men call out is so tender
that if an old woman eats it she will find herself young
in the morning.

A good deal of food is bought by the charitable and
given to beggars. Some even buy bread for the dogs,
hoping thereby to acquire merit and thus pave their
road to the Mohammedan heaven.

Making our way through the crowds we reach a region
of cook shops, restaurants, and cafes not far from the
butcher shops. The latter sell most kinds of meat, in-
cluding camel, beef, mutton, and lamb. The mutton is

219

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

fine. The sheep are of the fat-tail variety, and when
skinned and dressed for the market their tails are left on.
These hang down over their backs in great lumps of fat,
looking like a loaf of fresh dough ready for baking.
Sometimes they have the form of a heart four or five inches
thick and eight inches wide. Such a tail will weigh fifteen
pounds. Upon a live sheep it hangs down at the rear like
a woolly apron, and when raised looks like a miniature sail,
showing an expanse of bare white skin beneath.

Another interesting part of business Damascus is com-
posed of long streets of cave-like vaults floored with cement
and divided up into compartments piled high with grain,
beans, or flour. This is the grain bazaar. One of the
compartments may hold a hundred bushels of wheat and
another a like quantity of oats, barley, or lentils. There
are bins filled with Indian corn and bins of caraway seeds.
The grain lies on the floor and is scooped up and measured
to order. Camels come in bringing great bags of wheat
and go out carrying other grains to various parts of the
city. The country about Damascus which can be irri-
gated is exceedingly rich and produces large crops. A
great deal of grain is brought from the plains beyond the
Jordan and on the east of the Sea of Galilee, known as the
hauran, and this grain is shipped from Damascus to other
parts of Syria and across the Mediterranean to Europe.

Indeed, the trade of Damascus is extensive. The city
makes goods of various kinds which are shipped all over
the world. It is noted for its beautiful brass and silver
ware, its inlaid woodwork, and its oriental rugs. It has
large caravan trade with Persia and other parts of Turkey,
and long lines of camels are always bringing in and carry-
ing out goods. There are some great buildings called

220

SHOPPING IN STREET CALLED STRAIGHT

khans devoted to wholesaling and warehousing. I vis-
ited one of these. It was shaped much like a mosque,
being lighted by nine great domes the tops of which were
at least one hundred feet above the dirt floor. The
domes were upheld by stone pillars. The floor, which
covered almost an acre, was packed with merchandise.

In one part of it were bags of wheat piled high toward
the roof; in another hundreds of boxes of dates. In
other parts were barrels and crates of fruit and bales of
oriental rugs laid one upon the other. Some of the bales
were enormous, one equalling a load for a two-horse
wagon. I was told that they came from Bagdad. There
were a number of these khans in Damascus at the time of
Christ, and there are several now in use. The space in
them is rented out to merchants, the owners doing a gen-
eral warehousing business.

But come, let us go to the silver bazaar.

This, like the warehouse establishment, is under one
roof. It is composed of scores of silversmith shops or
booths scattered over a large room of more than an acre.
Each merchant has his own little quarter. He sits be-
hind a desk or counter, and has a rude, old-fashioned
safe at the rear. At the right and left, or still farther
back, are his mechanics, who are working in silver and
gold, making all sorts of jewellery. Each has a little anvil
before him and a miniature furnace with a blow pipe, by
which he melts and shapes the metal to the desired form.
The pounding can be heard everywhere. We ask some of
the merchants to show us their wares. They bring out
heavy chains of silver, and gold rings set with diamonds and
pearls and some magnificent pigeon-blood rubies. There
are millions of dollars' worth of jewellery under this roof.

221

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

The customers are both men and women, the former
in gowns and turbans and the latter in great black sheets
with veils over their faces. We stop and watch the buy-
ing and selling. There is a woman looking at a bracelet
of gold. The jeweller weighs it on rude little scales and
then adds the cost of the labour. The woman is not
satisfied with the price. She calls him a thief, and de-
mands that he do not rob her children of bread. It may
be an hour before the bargain is made.

I am frequently asked what one can buy in these or-
iental cities which is worth while taking home. Damas-
cus is a good shopping place for the tourist. Since it is
somewhat off the main line of travel, one can pick up
oriental things comparatively cheap. I have bought
several rugs which have come here by caravan from
Bokhara, two of which are at least one hundred years old.
I will not give the prices except to say that they are much
below those at which they could be bought in New York,
and the merchant has agreed to pay the duties upon them
and to deliver them to my house in Washington.

Among the many other things sold are silk head shawls
such as are used by the Bedouins, and table covers of red
or black woollen cloth embroidered with silk.

A great many Americans take home brassware from
Damascus, and not a few purchase swords inlaid with
silver and with the Damascus blades for which the city
has been noted for ages. Some of these swords are imi-
tations imported from Germany, while other " oriental"
wares come from Manchester, being made especially for
this trade. Indeed, one must keep his eye open if he
would buy genuine curios in any part of the world.

222

CHAPTER XXVII

THE VEILED WOMEN OF DAMASCUS

HO! YE bold, bright-eyed, fair-skinned girls of
America ! Forget the infinity of changing styles
with which you are free to please us every year
and take a look at your sisters of Damascus in
far-away Syria.

How would you like to exchange your life for theirs?
How would you like to spend your days without showing
your face to the light of the sun? How would you
like to go about in a great bag of black silk tied in at
the waist so that it covers your form from the head
to the feet except for a short, thick veil of black through
the meshes of which you can just feel your way along
the street?

How would you like to be penned up in the back of
your house, or to have your front windows so latticed
that you could see out only through holes as big around
as a lead pencil? Aye, more, how would you like never
to talk to any man but one of your own family, and worse,
never even to be seen by any other man or boy?

This is the condition of the girls of this fanatical city
of Damascus. It is the fate of millions of other women
of the Mohammedan world.

Within the past thirty years I have visited every Moslem
country on earth, and have worn out my eyes trying to

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THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

see through the veils which hide the fair sex. In Morocco
their faces are covered with cotton, and they peep out
through the crack made by pulling the cloth slightly
apart in front of the face. In Kairouan the girls cover
their faces with black crepe so thick that you cannot
tell whether they are negroes or whites; and in Tunis
they are so shrouded in balloon-like robes as hardly to be
able to walk. In Zanzibar the girls wear bags which
cover them to the feet, and their only view of the world
is through peepholes as big as a fifty-cent piece hedged
across with lace netting so that no man shall see in. In
Egypt the headdress comes down to the eyebrows, and a
veil extends from there to the knees, with the exception
of a crack for the eyes, the crack being kept open by a
gold or brass spool resting on the bridge of the nose. In
Constantinople the fashionable Turks are doing away with
the veil or using thin white gauze through which the face
can be plainly seen. It is thus that the ladies of the
harem of the Sultan are dressed, and thus the wives of all
the rich men.

Here in Damascus the women stick to veils of flowered
muslin or black crepe and wrap themselves in great bil-
lowy cloaks of black silk or calico. These bulge out
above and below where they are tied at the waist, making
each maiden look like two huge lumps of sausages. Every
time I go through the city I see hundreds of them wad-
dling along. They throng the bazaars, where they bob
back and forth as they talk with the merchants. They
may be seen picking their way through the side streets
or sitting on the floors of the mosques reading the Koran
and watching the men go through their prayers. Many
of the shrouded figures are those of small girls. They

224

The street-dress of the woman of Damascus is a bag of black silk tied
in at the waist and a black veil so thick that she can hardly see her way
about. Feminism and style-changes make little headway in Moslem
lands

I am five feet eight inches tall but could not reach to the upper edge
of this fragment of one of the giant columns at Baalbek. Once a centre
of worship of Baal, there were built later temples to Jupiter, Mercury,
Venus, and Bacchus

THE VEILED WOMEN OF DAMASCUS

take the veil at eleven or twelve and keep it on after
marriage and indeed until death.

And then the houses! All of the Mohammedans have
homes so latticed that the women cannot be seen from the
streets. In some cases the windows are built over the
sidewalks, hanging out like cages of wooden network.
This is true even in the new apartment houses which
are now going up, as well as in the huts of the poor, al-
though the latter seldom have windows except at the
back. The ordinary lattice is made of canelike rushes
or sticks, and preparing them is a special trade followed
by many. The rushes are brought in to Damascus on the
backs of donkeys, which as they go fill the streets with
their loads.

It behooves the Mohammedan woman to be strict in
her conduct. The husband here has most of the rights,
and can divorce his wife, or wives, whenever he will.
He sometimes does so without thinking, and that to his
sorrow. I heard of such a case yesterday. According to
the laws of Damascus, if a man wishes to get rid of his
wife he has only to say, "I divorce you! I divorce you!
I divorce you!" and the woman must leave. Once she
has gone she cannot come back as a wife until after she
has been married to someone else. To get around this,
an angry husband, relenting and longing for the dear de-
parted, arranges to marry her to a friend, a dervish, or
some half-crazy man, who for a sum will go through the
ceremony of a wedding and immediately divorce the
woman, who can then be married again to her former
husband. In the case referred to the man had a petty
quarrel with his wife, and angrily muttered the words of
divorce. As soon as she had gone he repented, and there-

225

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

upon brought about her marriage with an alleged friend,
with the understanding that a divorce was to follow right
after the ceremony. The friend, however, refused to
utter the words of divorce, saying, "I like the woman
and will keep her myself/' and so it is at this writing.

Such divorces are always on the part of the husband.
As for the women, they have more difficulty in getting
rid of the marriage tie, although they can do so provided
the husband does not perform his duty to them or give
them an equal amount of attention with the other wives
of the family. According to Mohammed every man had
the right to four wives, but the Koran provides that he
must spend an equal time with each of them, and in some
places he is required to give each a separate establishment.

During my travels in the Holy Land I have picked up
some interesting stories of marriage and divorce. Every
sect has its own customs. The Jews can divorce easily,
and after that they can marry again. The orthodox
Greeks can marry only three times, and some of the
Christians are not allowed a divorce without cause.

In all of the Jewish weddings the girl brings a dowry,
the amount of the dot being mentioned in the contract
of marriage. This contract is always signed in the
presence of the rabbi, and the wedding ceremony takes
place under a tent in the court of the synagogue. Be-
fore marriage the orthodox bride is shaved from her
head to her feet, after which her head is always kept
covered. At the ceremony and after it they have music,
with drums, cymbals, and harps; and many of the old-
fashioned customs of Bible times are observed. The
Jews marry young, and a girl is an old maid at twenty.

The Mohammedans of the villages usually take wives

226

THE VEILED WOMEN OF DAMASCUS

in their early teens, marriages at twelve years being not
uncommon. This is the case only with the girls. The
men are usually older, and it is customary for mature
men to marry young girls and to add to their harems as
the first wives grow older. In such cases the groom pays
money to the father of the bride. This is the reverse of
the Jewish marriages, where the money goes to the groom.
The price for a Moslem wife ranges from one hundred
dollars upward, according to the financial condition of
the contracting parties. The contracts are made by the
older people of the family. If there is a father he decides
upon the marriage. If the father is dead the eldest
brother may act, or in some cases the mother.

The customs as to the right of the family to dictate the
marriage are rigid. The other day a peasant living near
Jerusalem had a sister who ran away with her lover and
married him. This was after the family had objected to
the match. The peasant took a revolver and went after
the bridal couple. He caught up with his brother-in-
law in Jerusalem and shot him dead on the street. When
arrested he justified the crime and he is now imprisoned
awaiting trial. I am told he will get off with a slight
punishment, as he has acted within his rights according
to the Koran.

Among the city Mohammedans the bridegroom makes
a present of a dowry sufficient to enable his bride to pur-
chase her trousseau and household furniture. He may
give her six or eight hundred dollars, the greater part of
which will be paid to her nearest male relative before the
wedding takes place. On the other hand, he and that
relative may buy the outfit together, making items of
the various things and their cost. Often the whole

227

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

dowry is not paid at once, 25 or 30 per cent, being left
until after the wedding. This is not demanded except in
case of divorce, and it is considered a premium that will
insure good treatment from the husband.

The bride seldom even sees the groom before the wed-
ding, and the couple never meet until that time. The in-
vestigations of both families are carried on by the fathers
and mothers independent of the real parties to the
marriage.

When a boy is old enough to have a wife, let us say
at seventeen, his parents begin to look about for a suit-
able girl. The mother goes to the harems of her ac-
quaintances, and asks about the daughters. She also
visits the girls' schools, and when she has found a maiden
who she thinks may suit she invites the mother of the
girl to meet her at the bath. This is one of the chief
places of gossip and pleasure and it is not uncommon for
ladies to meet there. To the bath comes the prospective
bride with her mother for her first interview with her
would-be mother-in-law. The two talk and gossip to-
gether. After the bath is over they have something
to eat.

There is more talking, and the girl is sized up mentally
and physically. Upon her return home the mother of
the groom tells her husband the result of her investiga-
tions, and if he is pleased, negotiations are begun with
the parents of the bride. If agreeable, the dowry is fixed
and the betrothal is made. Neither the marriage nor
the betrothal can be consummated without the consent
of the girl. The man, or a Mohammedan priest, appears
at the door of the harem of the bride's mother. The
girl, who is behind the door, is asked if she will consent

228

Man is dwarfed by the enormous portal of the Temple of Bacchus con-
sidered the finest architectural feature of the structure. This is one of
the most beautiful and best preserved ruins in Syria

Standing out against the sky are these mighty columns, all that re-
main of the fifty-four that once surrounded the Great Temple of the
Sun at Baalbek. They are visible to the traveller long before he reaches
the ruins

THE VEILED WOMEN OF DAMASCUS

to the match. She has to answer " I will !" three separate
times, after which the amount of the dowry may be paid
over in the presence of witnesses.

In all oriental countries the wedding ceremonies are
very important. The marriage is always an occasion
of protracted festivities, and not to be invited is to suffer
a grave insult. One of the proverbs here is, " He who does
not invite me to his marriage will not have me at his
funeral." Among the Mohammedans the wedding cere-
monies often last a week, during which there is feasting
on the part of both families. The dinners are given
before the wedding, and at the time of the ceremony sums
of money are thrown to the beggars. The wedding
feasts usually begin Monday. Tuesday the bride is taken
to the bath where there is a feast, the bridegroom paying
the expenses of the bathing and eating.

Wednesday the bridegroom's women friends go to the
house of the bride where they have a concert and dinner.
The fingernails and toenails of the bride are stained red
with henna and they begin to deck her out for the wed-
ding. Thursday a great procession escorts the bride to
the groom's house where the two eat candy, exchanging
mouthfuls or bites, the idea being that nothing but sweet-
ness is hereafter to pass from the lips of one to the other.
The bridegroom has not seen the bride until this time.
He says a prayer in her presence, kneeling on her bridal
veil as he does so.

Among the Mohammedans of Palestine, says my guide
Shammas, the wedding usually takes place at the mosque,
and the bridegroom meets his bride when she is on the
way thither. Dressed and veiled in white, she is carried
under a canopy on the shoulders of four men. At the

229

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

mosque the wedding sermon is preached, and at the end
of this the bride goes to the house of her husband. As
she steps over the threshold she bends down and passes
under two crossed swords upheld by his friends. This
means that if she is not true to her husband he will kill
her. She is taken first to the women's apartment or
harem over the door of which has been placed a piece
of leavened dough, thus signifying that the home into
which she has come will flourish. In some cases the
bride breaks a piece of leavened bread and gives it to
the young people to eat.

After she has entered her own apartment in the groom's
house there is a feast, the guests sitting on the floor and
eating course after course of meats and vegetables inter-
spersed with candies and sirups. In some cases the
groom has to make the bride speak before the dinner
will be served, and it is a virtue with her to keep silent
just as long as she can.

It is the general idea among Christians that Moham-
medan wives have no rights which their husbands are
bound to respect. I am told this is not so, and that the
women here not infrequently rule their husbands. The
cost of living has increased so much within recent years
that it is only a rich Mohammedan who can afford
several wives. Public sentiment as to the rights of wo-
men has risen, and the man who abuses his wives is not
considered respectable. No man dares address a strange
woman on the streets of any Turkish city, and in the
best-regulated houses the husband does not enter the
women's apartments when he knows he is not wanted,
although he has the legal right to go there at any time.

The Mohammedan wife has the entire right and con-

230

THE VEILED WOMEN OF DAMASCUS

trol of her own property, and if she brings money into the
family she does not hesitate to say so. She has about as
much power in the courts as our women have. She can
sue and be sued and can even enter a suit against her
husband in regard to her own property. She can make a
will and leave her property as she pleases, and she can
force him to pay the dowry agreed upon. When she
marries he has to buy the wedding gown, and if he di-
vorces her she gets back her trousseau.

It is said that women are still bought and sold in the
Turkish possessions. Not long ago there was a regular
trade in the black girls who were brought across the
Sahara from Central Africa and shipped through Trip-
oli into Syria and other parts of Turkey. Before the
English took hold of Egypt this traffic was carried on
through the Nile Valley and was winked at by the
officials.

According to the law of the Koran marriages with
slaves are legal. The wives of the Sultans have usually
been slaves brought in from Georgia and Circassia,
plump girls with fair complexions and red hair bringing
the highest prices, perhaps as much as the cost of half a
dozen fine white horses. I hear that Circassian girls
often welcomed being sold, as they thus escaped the
hardships of their own country. Such as could play
on the zither and other musical instruments always
brought more than the ignorant. In the past, five
thousand dollars was not a high price for a Circassian
girl, while any good-looking Georgian maiden of twelve
would bring two hundred dollars and upward. The
children of such slave wives are legitimate.

231

CHAPTER XXVIII

BAALBEK THE WONDERFUL

I AM in the Valley of Lebanon, the high, narrow plain
which lies between the two ranges of the Lebanon
Mountains. The word Lebanon means "white,"
perhaps because of the walls of chalk or limestone
which are a feature of the whole range. Just now the
highest peaks are white with snow. These ranges ex-
tend north and south parallel with the coast of the
Mediterranean Sea. Beginning a little below the bor-
der of Asia Minor, they lose themselves in the Holy Land.
In reading of them I have always thought they were only
hills. They are higher than any mountains of our coun-
try east of the Mississippi, and the average height of the
range nearest the coast is a thousand feet greater than
that of Mount Washington. Mount Hermon is more
than nine thousand feet high and Jebel Makmel measures
ten thousand two hundred feet. The elevation of the
Valley of Lebanon itself is twice that of the topmost
peaks of the Blue Ridge of Virginia, and it slopes from
here to the north as far as Aleppo and to the south beyond
Dan, where rises the Jordan.

In this little valley, which is less than one hundred
miles long and from five to eight miles wide, walled by
these mighty mountains, lie the ruins of Baalbek, once
the most wonderful temples known to the ages. I have
spent hours in wandering through them, and their im-

232

BAALBEK THE WONDERFUL

mensity and beauty steadily grow upon me. I despair
of being able to describe them and can only hope to give
you bits of the details.

I have seen most of the world's mighty ruins. In the
past year I have wandered through the tombs of the
Mings outside Mukden, Manchuria; I have stood upon
the Temple of Heaven in Peking, and have climbed the
great Chinese wall. I have gone through the Temples
of Karnak at the hundred-gated city of Thebes far up
the Nile; I have taken photographs of the Colossi of
Memnon, and have measured the stones of the Pyramids
with a two-foot rule. Not long ago I visited the Temple
of Boro Boedor in the heart of Java to describe its three
miles of unique carvings, and last year I spent some time
in the forts of the Moguls at Delhi and wrote of the
Taj Mahal and its marvellous beauties. I have also seen
Timgad, the excavated city on the edge of the Sahara, and
have lately gone through the Colosseum at Rome and
inspected the equally imposing amphitheatre at El Djem
in the heart of the Tunisian desert. All these are wonder-
ful, but Baalbek is their superior.

These ruins have never been so impressive as they are
now. For centuries most of them have been as much
buried as is Herculaneum, and it was only when the
Emperor of Germany made his tour through this part of
the world, that they began to be brought to the light of
day.

I have marched in the Kaiser's footsteps through
Palestine and have seen there the churches and other
monuments which he had erected. Before he came to
Syria he stopped at Constantinople with the Sultan
Abdul Hamid, who gave him a permit to do about as he

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THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

pleased. As the Kaiser travelled he flattered the Mo-
hammedans, the Christians, and the Jews. He was alive
to every possibility, and he stamped "Made in Germany"
upon every city he visited. In Damascus he laid a golden
wreath on the tomb of Saladin, the famous soldier who
fought the Crusaders; and about Jerusalem he built
hospitals, schools, and a great sanatorium. Here at
Baalbek the Sultan gave him permission to do anything
he liked. In the Temple of the Sun is a tablet bearing an
inscription in German and Arabic testifying his regard
for the Sultan and his pleasure at visiting the ruins.
Shortly after leaving he sent German scientists, who
organized an army of natives and put them to work ex-
cavating the temples. The Germans laid down a rail-
road track for the dirt cars to carry away mountains of
earth and debris. As a result of their work and modern
machinery for lifting huge stones into place we have at
last a view of these most wonderful temples more as they
were in their glory.

But first let me tell you something about the origin of
these structures and the gods to whom they were dedi-
cated. The Arabs claim that this, rather than Damascus,
is the oldest city in the world. They say that Adam
lived here, and that it was between here and the Medi-
terranean that Cain killed Abel. One of Adam's favour-
ite residences was Damascus, and Seth lived at Nebi
Schitt in the Lebanon Mountains. They will show you
where Noah was buried and the town in which Ham lived.
They also think that Nimrod reigned in this valley, and
they have a tradition that when an angel called upon him
he threw the holy one into a blazing furnace from which
he came out unharmed. They locate the Tower of

234

BAALBEK THE WONDERFUL

Babel at Baalbek and believe that Nimrod built it. Ac-
cording to another legend, Abraham reigned at Damascus
and came here frequently. It is also well known that
Solomon had a city named Baalath, in which other gods
than Jehovah were worshipped. Indeed, it is said that
Solomon, in order to please his concubines, built a temple
here and that he had a castle which he gave as a present
to Balkis, the Queen of Sheba.

Baalbek was well known in the days of the Phoenicians
and was a great city in the time of Christ. It was about
a hundred years after that that the finest of the temples,
the ruins of which we see to-day, were constructed.
Then the Roman civilization was in the height of its glory,
and the emperors were building cities in north Africa, in
Asia Minor, and in other parts of the world. The Romans
put up the temples here in honour of Jupiter (Baal),
which had in them smaller temples to Venus and Bac-
chus. They worshipped Baal, the god of the sun, as one
of the greatest of their deities, although they had other
gods without number.

As to the worship of Baal, there have been gods of that
name almost since the beginnings of history. It is a
question, indeed, whether the word Baal did not mean
"lord," being a general term for male gods of various kinds.
Later on the Greeks considered Baal the god of the sun,
classing him with the god represented by Helios, in whose
honour the city of Heliopolis in Egypt was built. The
worship of Baal runs through the Bible. Samuel rebuked
the Israelites for bowing down to him, and Jezebel had
four hundred priests of Baal who were confounded by
Elijah. Indeed, it is a question whether Beelzebub, or
the devil, was not Baalzebub.

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THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

Here at Baalbek the finest statue was that of this god.
It was of gold and represented a beardless young man
clad in armour standing between two golden bulls. He
held a whip in his right hand and a thunderbolt and some
ears of corn in his left. There were also statues of Mer-
cury and Venus, a Hall of Bacchus, and statues and
statuettes of exquisite workmanship. These images were
destroyed by the early Christians, who threw down parts
of the temples and broke up the carvings in their de-
testation of all pagan art.

It is impossible to give pictures of the ruins and of the
mighty temples as they were in their wonderful beauty.
The ruins cover more than ten acres, and the Great Tem-
ple alone was about three hundred feet long by one
hundred and sixty feet wide. It had a roof upheld by
Corinthian columns only, six of which are now standing.
These columns are eighty feet high and twenty-two feet in
circumference. In entering the temples I went up a gigan-
tic staircase, a great part of which has been destroyed, and
came into what is known as the forecourt, which is about
two hundred feet wide, and the floor of which was paved
with mosaic.

We next went through another court, known as the
Court of the Altar, which must cover five or six acres. It
is a mass of marble and granite, gigantic columns and
delicate carvings being thrown helter-skelter together.
Beyond this and up a series of steps are the ruins of the
Great Temple itself. At the left is the exquisite Temple
of Bacchus, and everywhere are great shafts of marble
so wonderfully carved that they would be treasures in
any museum.

All this, however, gives no idea of the construction.

236

The nomadic Bedouins live in brown tents so low that the people have
to stoop to get into them. They camp wherever they find good grazing
for their stock

The desolation of the once heavily wooded mountains of Lebanon is
emphasized by the lonely grove of cedars. This grove, far up among the
snows, is protected by a wall and contains four hundred very old trees

BAALBEK THE WONDERFUL

People wonder how the mighty stones of the Pyramids
were put into place, and books have been written to show
how the obelisks were taken from the quarries to the sites
where they were erected as monuments. The building
of the temples of Baalbek was a far greater mechanical
triumph. The materials, including columns weighing
hundreds of tons, had to be brought up the steep Leba-
non Mountains and carried over passes higher than the
tops of the Alleghanies. There is granite here which
came from far up the Nile; there are marbles from
Greece, and great limestone blocks from the quarries
near by. The temple has walls sixty feet high, and the
mighty columns — seven feet in diameter, and, including
the pedestals and capitals, as tall as an eight-story build-
ing— rest upon a platform which is more than fifty feet
high. These mighty pillars are put up in three sections
each twenty feet or more in height and seven feet in
diameter. They are so put together that each column
looks like one solid block.

In the walls of the temple foundation are what are, I
venture, the biggest building blocks ever quarried. One
of the walls has three great limestone blocks each of which
measures sixty-four feet long, thirteen feet wide, and
twelve feet thick. If such stones were placed end to
end it would take only about eighty of them to make one
mile. These stones were brought from a quarry about a
mile away. Some of them have been placed upon the
walls at a distance of thirty or more feet from the ground,
and are so accurately laid that a knife blade cannot be
driven between them.

I got an idea of the size of these blocks by visiting the
quarries. Just outside that from which the stones came

237

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

is one which was cut out of the rock, but for some reason
or other was not carried to the structure. It was dragged
only a few feet away from the virgin rock, and to-day
lies there on its side, half buried in the earth. Upon
its top I walked over it. It is so wide that you could
drive two motor cars abreast upon it without risk of fall-
ing over the edges, and an English traveller here says
that a cricket match might be played upon its face,
putting the stakes at the right distance apart and giving
the bowler at least two feet at the end for his run. This
block is as smooth as a marble column and accurately
square. Each side of it measures fourteen feet and it is
about seventy feet long. If it were stood on end inside
a modern ten-story apartment house it would fill ten
rooms one above the other, each room fourteen feet
square and seven feet high. It has been estimated to
weigh fifteen hundred tons and if cut up would make a
good load for thirty flat cars.

Think of moving stones like that out of the mountains
and up and down hill for a mile without the aid of steam,
electricity, or any kind of machinery! That is the kind
of work the Romans did eighteen hundred years ago.
All through the temples you may see examples of such
huge masses moved about and lifted into place.

There are carvings more beautiful than anything seen
on our buildings to-day. On some of the blocks still in
the structure I saw bunches of grapes no bigger than my
thumb as beautifully cut as though made by nature.
There were also Cupids and cherubs exquisitely carved.
It was said of the artists who built the great temples of
Delhi and Agra in India that they worked like Titans
and finished like jewellers. The same was true of

238

BAALBEK THE WONDERFUL

the Romans of the reigns of Antonius, Caracalla, and
Nero.

I have taken photographs of some of the broken col-
umns with myself standing beside them to give an idea of
their size. I am five feet eight inches tall and the large
columns are fully two feet more in diameter. Some of
the wonderful carvings are those which form the frieze
above the great pillars two or three hundred feet high up
in the air. Among them are the heads of gigantic lions,
each head as big as a flour barrel but polished like a
fine marble mantel. Through the mouths of these lions
emptied the drains of the roof.

The beauties of the temples will be preserved from now
on. They are under official guard, and tickets which
cost a dollar apiece are required of all who go in. I was
shown through by Dr. Michel Alouf, an archaeologist, who
explained just how the temples looked in the past. He
showed me where the early Christians had erected a
church inside one temple, defacing the carvings and
breaking the noses of the beautiful statues. They took
pleasure in destroying the work wrought by heathen art-
ists in honour of pagan gods. Next came the Arabs, who
used the place as a fort, throwing great round chunks
of marble as big as footballs from its sheltering walls.
There are piles of these marble balls inside the temple
to-day. They were probably cut from the columns.
The Arabs made a mosque in the temple. They wiped
out every trace of the Christian religion and used a part
of the church for a bath. After them came an earthquake,
so that the ruins were mostly covered up until the Ger-
mans began their excavations.

I am stopping here in the little town of Baalbek, which

239

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

stands right on the edge of the ruins. It has an excellent
hotel, and its people are hospitable. Its population of
five or six thousand is made up of Mohammedans and
Christians. Besides a small garrison of soldiers, there
are two Greek Catholic monasteries and several girls'
schools. The children followed us as we walked about
through the ruins, selling purses made of Syrian silk
into which they had woven a design of the six great col-
umns of the temple. They also asked for baksheesh, and
the begging palm was everywhere thrust out.

I am surprised at the scanty forestation of these moun-
tains of Lebanon. I had expected to find them covered
with woods, whereas they are almost treeless. Their
lower slopes are well cultivated and some of them are
terraced almost to the top. Thousands of acres, made up
of little patches, rise step-like one above another, covering
the hills for miles and miles. These patches contain
mulberry orchards and vineyards. There are also peaches
and apples, and in the valleys are rich fields of wheat,
barley, and clover. The chief formation is limestone,
and though there are rocks everywhere, the soil seems
wonderfully rich.

The cedars of Lebanon may have been great in the past,
but they have now almost disappeared. The only ones
left are situated about nine or ten hours from Baalbek.
The trees grow in the thin soil, which covers the white
limestone, the ground being coated with spines, cones,
and leaves. Five are very ancient and of great girth,
but the tallest is not more than eighty feet high. The
largest of all is about fifteen feet thick, so you see they
are mere sprouts in comparison with the Big Trees of
California and quite small as compared with the giants

240

Of the great cedars of Lebanon which Solomon used in building his tem-
ple, only a few are left. The ancient Israelites regarded these trees as
the ornaments of the mountains and the types of manly strength and
beautv

The plain of Beirut is covered with luxuriant gardens, and tree-lined
avenues lead out of the city. Beirut, one of the oldest cities on the
Phoenician Coast, is the metropolis of Syria and Lebanon and the sea-
port of Damascus

BAALBEK THE WONDERFUL

of Washington and Oregon. The cedars which were taken
for the temple at Jerusalem probably came from the region
where the old cedars stand, although other parts of the
Lebanon Mountains may then have been covered with
woods. The logs must have been cut in the forests and
carried over the mountains forty or fifty miles to the
seacoast. The rafting was done under the direction of
King Hiram of Tyre, and the logs were probably towed
down to Jaffa, and thence carried up the mountains of
Judea to Jerusalem, a distance of about forty miles. The
cedars bear cones about as large as a goose egg. The
leaves or spines of the cones are solid rather than de-
tached, as those of our cedars at home. The wood is
whitish in colour; it is soft, and for building is far inferior
to cypress or pine.

241

CHAPTER XXIX

ACROSS THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS BY RAIL

IT SEEMS almost sacrilegious to travel by rail over the
highways of the Bible. The iron tracks are laid in
the pathways of the prophets, and the ghosts of
the saints may be roused by the shriek of the loco-
motives. The modern traveller can cover in a few hours
by rail distances that were several days' journey in the
times of our Lord.

My first railroad trip in the Holy Land was from the
port of Jaffa up the mountains of Judea to the city of
Jerusalem. My second was on the Mecca road from the
lower end of the Sea of Galilee through the great plains
of the Hauran to Damascus over the mountains of Leba-
non to Beirut on the Mediterranean Sea. During the
latter trip I went from Rayak, in the Valley of Lebanon,
between the two ranges of mountains, along the road
which has been built northward through the Ccele-
Syria to Aleppo.

All of these roads are comparatively new, and some are
still building. The Mecca line now runs as far south as
Medina, where Mohammed came after his flight from
Mecca, and where his tomb is. That city has something
like forty thousand people and is one of the most fanatical
of the Moslem centres. It will be the chief stopping
place on the way to Mecca.

Mecca lies about two hundred and fifty miles still far-

242

ACROSS THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS

ther south and the track is being laid toward that point.
When the first surveys were made there were two Chris-
tian civil engineers in the surveying party, but the people
were so intolerant that these men were kept hidden the
greater part of the time and did their work inside the
tents. They were not allowed to spy out the land, to
see, or be seen.

The Bedouins are now causing the contractors consid-
erable trouble. The road will take a large part of the
pilgrimage traffic, which, it has been estimated, is worth
to Arabia some ten million dollars a year. Much of the
money goes to the owners of the camels and the leaders
of the caravans, who are Bedouins. During the building
of the road many of these have been employed in the
construction and in supplying the other labourers with
food. As the present work has neared its completion,
many of the Bedouins have lost their jobs. They are ob-
jecting to the railway and have torn up the tracks in
many places. The result is a great unrest which threat-
ens to cause serious disturbance.

The traffic on the Constantinople-Damascus and Mecca
railways will be made up largely of men on their way to
worship at Mecca and Medina. Now, with nothing but
camels to carry them, it is estimated that about four
hundred thousand go there every year, and it is believed
that the railway will increase the traffic from fifty to
one hundred per cent. Christians and other unbelievers
will not be carried to the holy cities, although they may
make tours to Petra and other parts of Arabia.

This Mecca railway will have special accommodations
for Mohammedans. Certain of the carriages will be
fitted up as mosques, so that the travellers can perform

243

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

their devotions during the journey. The praying car-
riages will be luxuriously furnished. The floors will be
covered with Persian carpets, and around the sides will
be painted verses from the Koran in letters of gold. A
chart will indicate the direction of Mecca, so that the
Faithful can always face the right way when praying, and
there will also be a minaret on the top of the car six and
a half feet high.

The Mecca road is a narrow-gauge with French rolling
stock. The material has been imported from Europe,
the ties being of iron to withstand the white ants, which
eat anything wooden. One of the great difficulties of
construction has been the lack of water. The road goes
for long stretches through the desert, and many of the
trains carry large tanks to keep the boilers full.

I travelled over a part of the Mecca road on my way from
the Holy Land north to Damascus. Leaving Tiberias
in the early morning, I was rowed by four lusty Syrians
across the Sea of Galilee to Semakh, which is the station
on the lower end of that sea and the place where a branch
line runs off to Haifa. From there northward we skirted
the east side of the Sea of Galilee, passing the hills upon
which our Saviour preached. We rode up the valley of
the Yarmuk, a stream almost as large as the Jordan, which
loses itself in the Jordan farther south. We climbed the
foothills of Lebanon, and at about three thousand feet
above the surface of the Sea of Galilee reached the rich
plain of Hauran, the great bread basket of the Bedouins.
It grows wheat and other grain, and the land near the
track was covered with poppies, golden daisies, and wild
red hollyhocks.

We could see Bedouin camps everywhere. These no-

244

The stones for the Tuberculosis Hospital at Juneh had to be carried up
one at a time on the backs of camels

From Beirut and its vicinity come nearly all of the Syrian immigrants
to the United States. Most of them are Christians and many of them
have felt the influence of the American University, the centre of advanced
thought in the Near East

ACROSS THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS

mads live in brown tents so low that the people have to
stoop to get in. Outside each little group of tents was
an inclosure for the stock, and on the lands near by cat-
tle and camels were grazing. As we travelled we could
see great flocks of black goats feeding on the sides of the
Lebanon Mountains. They hung to the cliffs, looking
much like flies on the wall. There were also droves of
black cattle and many flocks of fat-tailed white sheep.

The cars were crowded with Turks, Syrians, and Bed-
ouins, but on the advice of a friend I gave the conductor
a dollar, and in return had a compartment all to myself.
Baksheesh will do anything in Syria. As Shammas, my
guide, puts it: "The franc is the wheel upon which the
world goes round."

This road to Damascus, beginning with the branch line
to Haifa, skirts the edge of Mount Carmel, where Elijah
lived in a cave and where he contended with the four
hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and caused their de-
struction. It goes up the plain of Esdraelon, where the
fair Jezebel lived and over which Jehu galloped to Jez-
reel on his race for the throne. It takes you in plain
sight of Mount Tabor and under the hills of Nazareth
where the Saviour's boyhood and young manhood were
spent. It crosses the spot where Jael was camping when
Sisera came and she lulled him to sleep to drive the tent
peg into his forehead. Then it goes on up to Damascus
over a route which was probably travelled by Abraham,
David, and Solomon, and by St. Paul when he was
blinded by the great light.

The road to Jerusalem goes over the plains where the
Israelites fought with the Philistines, through the country
of Samson, which I have already described, and near the

245

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

place where David with his little stone slew the great
Goliath.

The railway from Damascus to Beirut shows you Mount
Hermon, so famed in the Psalms, and passes numerous
places, which, according to the Mohammedans, were the
homes and tombs of the prophets. Take, for instance,
Suk Wady Baroda, a little valley oasis on the way to
Baalbek made up of flat-roofed mud houses surrounded
by orchards and vineyards. It is mentioned by Josephus
and is referred to in St. Luke as the home of the tetrarch
Lysanias. The Mohammedans say that Adam lived in
the mountain which looks down upon it, and that it was
near the oasis itself that Cain became jealous of Abel
and slew him. I have always thought that Abel was
killed with a club, although I see now that the Bible does
not mention the weapon used in the murder. The Mos-
lem legend says it was a stone. The story is that Adam
had divided the world into two sections and had given
one of them to each of his boys. They had marked out
their respective sections with stones, when a dispute arose
concerning the boundary line. Cain claimed that Abel was
inching on him, whereupon hot words passed, and Cain
threw a rock and struck Abel in the temple and killed him.

According to the Moslem tradition, Cain was filled with
remorse. He did not know what to do with his dead
brother, so he took the body on his back and carried it
with him over the world for five hundred years. At the
end of that time he returned to this mountain, where he
saw two birds fighting. At last one killed the other and
then washed and buried the one slain. Cain did like-
wise with Abel, and straightway there sprang up seven
oak trees, which are pointed out to this day.

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ACROSS THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS

According to the same authorities, Seth, Adam's son,
who took the place of Abel, lived on the western slope of
the Lebanon range, and his tomb is still there. A mosque
is built over it and the tomb may be seen through an iron
grating. It is eighty feet long, but the people living in
the village say that it was too short and that Seth's legs
had to be doubled up in order to fit. Not far away is
the tomb of Noah, which is forty feet longer. It also
has a mosque connected with it.

The distance from Damascus to Beirut is ninety-one
miles. Travellers are advised not to take the third class,
and women should always go first class. The third
class has compartments eight feet wide running across
the cars at right angles with the engine. Each compart-
ment has two cushioned benches facing each other, its
sides are walled with windows, and there is a door at each
end. The conductor does not go through the cars, but
collects the tickets from the outside, walking along a
running board which extends the full length of the car
and holding on to an iron rail fastened to the outside
some distance above the step.

The road is picturesque and gives magnificent views
of the Lebanon Mountains. The track winds its way up
and down the hills, and the western side of the range
is so steep that the cars are taken up on cogs after the
same manner as on Pike's Peak, Mount Washington,
and the Rigi. There are twenty-five stations, mostly
two-story buildings of stone.

The passengers are the conglomerate mixture of human-
ity found in this part of the Orient. There are scores
of Syrians in long coats and trousers, some wearing
red fezzes, and others having turbans or handkerchiefs

247

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

wrapped around their heads. There are Turkish officers in
uniform, with swords at their sides, fez-capped boys in
silk gowns, and other Moslems in turbans and gowns.
There are Mohammedan women clad all in black and
wearing black veils. There are pretty Greek girls with
bare faces, brown-skinned women from the mountains,
and Bedouins, who have ropes tied about the kerchiefs
which half shroud their fierce features. There are also
Persians, Druses, and Christians of all sorts and condi-
tions.

The trains go slowly in climbing the mountain. The
average express makes less than sixteen miles an hour,
while the mixed train takes twelve hours to make the
ninety-one miles.

For many years the European powers have been schem-
ing for the right to build railroads in this part of the world.
One of the biggest and most talked-of projects is a line
to open up the rich valley of the Euphrates where Baby-
lon and Nineveh once flourished. It has some of the
best lands on the face of the globe, and it has been sug-
gested that it was the site of the Garden of Eden. The
British are especially interested in the project because
of their irrigation plans for Mesopotamia headed by Sir
William Willcocks, the engineer for the Aswan Dam,
which has redeemed about seven million acres in Egypt.
The Germans won out in the scramble for the concession
to build the road to Bagdad. The line was divided into
sections and the Germans pushed on the work rapidly.
Another concession to part of this line was granted by
the Sultan to a group of Americans, but their plans fell
through.

As to the resources to be developed by these new roads,

248

ACROSS THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS

they are beyond description enormous. They include
rich deposits of coal, oil, and other minerals. Asia Minor
is rich agriculturally. The plains of Mesopotamia will
raise anything that can be grown in Egypt, and the new
irrigation schemes will make them as productive as they
were when Nebuchadnezzar was reigning at Babylon. In
ancient times that country had a population of more than
six million. It has not one fourth as many to-day. I
am told that cotton will grow not only there but also
throughout Asia Minor, and it may be that one of the
chief competitors of our Southern plantations will even-
tually be found in this now almost waste but potentially
rich part of the world.

The famous Berlin-to-Bagdad scheme is not the only
evidence of the German Kaiser's desire to gobble up as
much of the Near East as possible. I use the word
" gobble " advisedly. According to the Century Dic-
tionary, it means " to swallow in large pieces, to swallow
hastily, to seize upon with greed, and to appropriate
graspingly." And that aptly describes the German
methods. I have seen German Kultur at work all during
this trip.

In the richest parts of Palestine I saw their flourishing
colonies. At Jerusalem I saw the great German church
built under the very shadow of the Holy Sepulchre, their
huge church on Mount Zion beyond the Tower of David,
and the enormous limestone hospice erected in honour of
Kaiserin Augusta on a commanding slope of the Mount
of Olives. It is said that the money with which the site
was bought and some of that used in the building was a
silver wedding present to the Empress. It was known
that she greatly loved Palestine, and her friends planned

249

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

this memorial as a silver wedding gift. The hospice is
several hundred feet above Jerusalem, and standing
upon its roof on a bright day one can look across the hills
of Judea and see the silvery thread of the Jordan and the
shining Dead Sea with the blue mountains of Moab
beyond.

The Kaiser was no respecter of persons, either living or
dead. The site of his big church was purchased by him
of Sultan Adbul Hamid when he visited him in Constan-
tinople. He went there on his way to the Holy Land,
and while hobnobbing with the Sultan got him to sell
him this tract for twenty-four thousand dollars. The
land, however, was not large enough, so the Germans by
a clever trick purchased for sixteen thousand dollars the
American cemetery which adjoined the original tract.

The Emperor of Germany when he made his trip
through the Holy Land created as great a sensation as
Theodore Roosevelt when he cavorted through Europe.
Kaiser Wilhelm and his empress started in at Beirut
and crossed the mountains of Lebanon to Baalbek and
Damascus. They then returned to Beirut and took ship
down the coast, past Tyre and Sidon, to the Bay of Acre.
Here horses were waiting for them and they rode down
around the slopes of Mount Carmel, over the plains of
Sharon to Jaffa, and thence up the hills of Judea to
Jerusalem. There were about a thousand in the party,
and it required one thousand two hundred and fifty mules
and horses to carry them and their baggage. The Em-
peror himself had a staff of one hundred and twenty,
who ate at his own tables, and there were in addition one
hundred and forty naval and military officers. The Em-
press also had her ladies-in-waiting with her. One hun-

250

ACROSS THE LEBANON MOUNTAINS

dred and seventy-five high Turks and officials were sup-
plied by the Sultan as a special escort. The Emperor's
tour was so arranged that he had four camps. He slept
in a different camp every night and had a new one for
each meal.

Although the journey was made in October, the weather
was hot, and the chief trouble was to supply the expedi-
tion with water. Some died of thirst, and between Haifa
and Jaffa six horses dropped dead of sunstroke. It was
so hot that the trip to the Dead Sea and the Jordan was
not attempted, but the Emperor went to Bethlehem and
other places near by. He remained seven days at Je-
rusalem, during which time he consummated his pur-
chases of land.

In Palestine I encountered a German tourist agency, a
competitor of Thomas Cook & Son. This tourist agency
had its own hotels at Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Haifa, and its
own guides, dragomans, horses, and carriages. Its men,
who thoroughly understood the country, had established
such relations with the Bedouin tribes that they could
take parties anywhere. The agency's road mending and
other activities had opened up many hitherto inaccessible
parts of the country. Indeed, the Germans started a
new roads movement in the Holy Land. The first at-
tempt was made when the Kaiser went from Jaffa to
Jerusalem. The Sultan had the highway repaired, and
when the Germans travelled over it, it was watered for
the first time in its history, being sprinkled from skin-
bags carried from the shoulders of women and girls, and
filled at the springs, wells, and cisterns near by.

251

CHAPTER XXX

AMERICAN LEAVEN IN THE NEAR EAST

A MERICAN education is revolutionizing the Or-
/\ ient. It has been one of the chief modernizing
/ \ forces in Egypt, it had much to do with the
^ ^revolution in Persia, and it is the basis of the re-
organization of the whole Turkish Empire. The first
schools of Egypt were started by the missionaries of the
United Presbyterian Church, whose educational insti-
tutions now cover the Nile Valley. This church has
schools in the Sudan and a great American college at
Asyut, several hundred miles from Cairo. The college
was started in a donkey stable more than forty years
ago, and it has been turning out graduates ever since.
It has now more than one thousand students who are
housed in ten large two-story buildings, and it has three
of the finest halls to be found in the East. These are
situated just outside Asyut, at the junction of the Nile
with the great canal north of that city. The college has
about three hundred women.

I visited the college at Asyut not long ago. It is full
to overflowing, and notwithstanding the new structure
just completed it needs more money and more buildings.
It has a great prestige throughout Egypt, and with a
little money its efficiency could easily be doubled. The
college is said to give a better education than the govern-
ment institutions, and that at the lowest possible cost.

252

These are not stones of the field, but great blocks of marble, many of
them beautifully carved — the remains of the wondrous city of Diana

Storks build their nests in the palaces of Ephesus and the peasants fence
their fields with chunks of marble from its once magnificent temples

There is a great rustling as the silkworms attack their breakfast of
mulberry leaves. Every year representatives of the silk industry in the
Lebanon go abroad to get worms for breeding, as those bred in that
region do not lay healthy eggs

AMERICAN LEAVEN IN THE NEAR EAST

The tuition is nominal. For the poorest schools it is
only about one dollar a term in money, and the ordinary
rate is about ten dollars a year. The cost of the educa-
tion varies with the taste of the students. These are of
all classes from the sons of the poorest fellah to the heir
of the highest pasha or richest merchant. There are
three kinds of accommodations, the cost of which ranges
from thirty-five dollars a year upward. The wealthy
Egyptian boy can have his own room, or groups can live
four in a room. He can eat at the best table, or he can
get cheaper board with meat three or four times a week.
On the other hand, he can work his way through college,
furnishing his own food, buying vegetables and fish at
very low cost. Many of the boys bring their bread from
home. It is made of ground corn or millet and baked in
cakes an inch thick. These cakes are toasted until they
are as hard as stone, in which shape they will go through
the term. Before going to a meal the students dip their
bread in buckets of water set out for the purpose, and
when it is soft carry it with them to the table.

The Asyut institution has its graduates in all the gov-
ernment departments of Egypt. They are among the
leading merchants of the country, and every town has
numbers of them. Many of them are Copts and not a
few are Mohammedans. I am told that there are more
than fifteen thousand boys now being educated in the
United Presbyterian schools and colleges.

Shortly before Sultan Abdul Hamid was ousted by the
Young Turk party and carried to his prison in Saloniki,
he referred bitterly to the work that Robert College had
done in unsettling his empire. Said he: "That institution
has cost me Bulgaria, and it is like to lose me my throne."

253

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

He was right. Robert College was founded in Con-
stantinople in 1863 by a New York merchant named
Robert, who gave a large part of his fortune to this
institution. He was aided by the Reverend Cyrus Hamlin,
D.D., who was, I think, the real organizer. Since then
its graduates have formed the leaven for new ideas
throughout the Near East. Some of its graduates or-
ganized the colleges and schools in Bulgaria. Others
have been teaching in schools throughout the Turkish
Empire; many have acted as officers of the Government,
and some of the best leaders of Turkey to-day got their
education at Robert College.

Robert College has now five hundred or six hundred
students, including Mohammedans, Jews, Armenians,
and Russians, as well as representatives of the other na-
tions about. The teaching is non-sectarian, although all
are required to attend daily prayers and go to services on
Sunday. The college has won the approval of the Gov-
ernment, but the officials want it incorporated as a
Turkish institution so it will be subject to their laws.
To this the Americans naturally object. They say that
they are organized under the laws of New York and they
expect to stand by all the rights which they now enjoy
as an American corporation under the protection of the
United States Government.

There is no doubt that the Americans are sensible in
preferring the protection of Uncle Sam to that of the
Sultan. Conditions are bound to be unsettled in this
part of the world for years to come. There will be revo-
lutions and counter-revolutions before the Turks come
down to a solid, substantial, modern government. There
is always the fear that the college will be put under a

254

AMERICAN LEAVEN IN THE NEAR EAST

strict censorship, as used to be the case. As it is now,
the students can read what books they like, and there is
little trouble as to the newspapers. They can go where
they please without passports, and the present govern-
ment seems to be doing all it can to promote education.

Under the regime of Abdul Hamid it was far different.
In his time every newspaper was carefully looked over by
Turkish officials, and all sentences or words objectionable
to the Government were cut out. This was true of
papers coming in through the mail as well as of the
native publications. Here in Beirut a Sunday weekly is
published devoted largely to the life and sayings of our
Saviour. The censors objected to it, saying: "The paper
is a dangerous one, for in it they kill a King of the Jews
every week. This might suggest the assassination of
the Sultan, and we cannot permit it."

Dr. Bliss, the president of the American University of
Beirut, once imported an old copy of Shakespeare. It
was kept at the customs house, the censor objecting to its
importation. Said the latter : " Shakespeare is not a good
book for the Turks. It has in it the story of a man named
Macbeth who killed a king. It would be a bad example for
our people.'' Dr. Bliss succeeded in getting his Shake-
speare through by saying he had another copy of the same
book, which, as it was already in the country, could not
be taken out, and he would be glad to trade this for
the new copy. The censor consented, accepted the
Shakespeare which cost a dollar, and admitted the fine
old edition instead.

At another time some New Testaments sent to Con-
stantinople were held back by one of the censors because
of the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians. Galata is one

255

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

of the divisions of Constantinople, and the censor asked:
"Who is this man Paul, and why is he writing to our
people in Galata?" He was with difficulty persuaded
that St. Paul was dead and that his letter was not part
of a plot. There is a story that a textbook on chemistry
was kept out because a censor objected to the term H20,
saying that it seemed to mean that Hamid 1 1 (the Sultan,
Abdul Hamid) amounted to nothing.

In addition to Robert College and the institution at
Asyut there is one here at Beirut which is quite as im-
portant as either of the others. I refer to the American
University of Beirut, founded by Americans in 1863,
which has become the Harvard and Yale of the Near
East. It has had thousands of graduates, and its doctors
and lawyers stand at the heads of their professions in
Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Persia, and India. It has more
than nine hundred students, all Orientals, representing
every part of the Levant.

This institution was founded by Presbyterians, but
the instruction is non-sectarian. The faculty has about
one hundred and twenty professors, most of them
Americans, and it is a thoroughly up-to-date university.
It has a medical department which, with its hospitals,
treats thousands of patients a year. It has physical,
chemical, and other laboratories, a large library, and
ethnological and industrial museums devoted to exhibits
from Syria and Turkey.

During my stay here I have visited the college. It
is beautifully located, the buildings being situated on
the bluffs south of Beirut and running from them down
to the sea. Standing upon the campus, which contains
about fifty acres, one faces the glorious Mediterranean,

256

Armenian children begin to make themselves useful at an early age.
Centuries of hardships under anti-Christian rulers have made these
people resourceful and self-reliant. They are the shrewdest traders of
the East

American relief in the Near East takes the practical form of getting
the people back to the land, much of which has been devastated by one
war after another

AMERICAN LEAVEN IN THE NEAR EAST

while at his back are the snow-capped mountains of
Lebanon with the rich vegetation climbing their slopes.
The institution has a gymnasium, tennis courts, and good
athletic grounds. Its students play football, baseball,
and cricket. They are full of college spirit and have their
college papers, their college songs, and their college yell.

The boys have silver cups and other trophies which
are contended for by the various athletic teams, and these
Persians, Greeks, Syrians, Arabs, Egyptians, Armenians,
and Turks are being welded into one brotherhood by
the hard knocks of football and the track.

The Beirut University is an American college and a
Christian college as well, but it does not attempt to prose-
lytize, and the Moslem can come to it without changing
his religion. It insists only that everyone who goes
through its courses shall attend chapel and the Bible
classes, which study the Bible as one of the great influ-
ences in the work of the world. Once the Moslem
students struck against these regulations. They refused
to go to chapel and took an oath not to attend the Bible
classes. The strike created a sensation, and for a time
it seemed as though it might do serious damage. The
faculty, however, headed by the president, Dr. Howard
S. Bliss, stood firm, saying that the school was a Christian
college. They demanded that all students attend the
religious services, and the result was that most of the
strikers came in, and the college has gone along on its
original lines.

In talking about this to the Mohammedan students
Dr. Bliss said:

"Our college was established to give the Mohammedan
world the best the Christian world has. Our aim is to

257

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

make of you broad-minded, intelligent men whether you
continue to be Moslems or become Christians. We be-
lieve that the best thing we have is our religion, so we
are bound to let you know what it is. Whether you
accept it or not rests with yourselves. If, upon inves-
tigation, you still think the Moslem religion the best,
we believe that the knowledge you have of our religion
will make you better and broader Moslems. Religion
is for man, not man for religion, and we want you to
have the training which will make each one of you the
best man, whether he be Christian or Moslem."

To-day the Mohammedan students attending the
services look upon them as largely educational, and they
study the Bible as history and literature.

The influence of colleges like this goes far and wide.
The students come from villages all over the Turkish
Empire and from those of India and Persia as well. Going
home, each forms a little hot-bed for the growth of inde-
pendent thought.

Civilized ideas are spread in other ways besides these.
One of the great means of such distribution is the annual
pilgrimage to Mecca, which is attended by nearly half
a million Mohammedans from all parts of the Orient.
At that time Mecca becomes a great camp meeting or
bush meeting, such as we farmers have in Virginia. The
people come together and gossip. They discuss the crops
and ask one another how they are getting along. Hassan
Ali of Egypt says to Mohammed of Turkey, "How is
business? Are you making money, and how does your
government treat you?" Mohammed replies that the
Turks are taxed to death, but they hope for much under
the new Sultan. Thereupon Hassan says that the English

258

AMERICAN LEAVEN IN THE NEAR EAST

have cut down the taxes in Egypt and that the church
has plenty of money in the treasury. He tells how he
has been able to send his boy to college, and that he
hopes he will some day be an official. The Turk, there-
upon, longs for a better government. At the same time
the college students tell what they have learned, and as
a result the twentieth-century spirit of modern progress
is stirring the Mohammedan world.

In addition to the collegiate work great advances in
the spread of our civilization are being made by the
Protestant missions. There are now thousands of native
Christians in Syria and from seventy-five to one hundred
thousand native Christians in the empire of Turkey.
The American missionaries alone have more than one
hundred schools, with five or six thousand pupils, and the
English have many more.

Here in Beirut is the largest and most up-to-date pub-
lishing house in the Orient. It belongs to the American
mission, and annually turns out tens of thousands of
Bibles, school textbooks, and other works on religious
and scientific subjects. Altogether, it has published
more than seven hundred different works in Arabic, and
it is estimated that it has printed in the neighbourhood
of a billion pages of one kind or other. It issues around
one hundred thousand volumes a year, containing alto-
gether something like thirty million pages. Its Bibles
published in Arabic are sold throughout the Mohamme-
dan world.

The medical missionaries are doing a great deal in all
parts of the Orient. I have seen their hospitals every-
where on my trips around the world. They are to be
found in all parts of India, far up the Nile Valley, and in

259

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

the leading centres of the Holy Land. One of the best
I have visited is situated at Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee,
and headed by Dr. Torrence, who has been treating the
Bedouins and others there for the last thirty years. In
my talk with him the question of tuberculosis came up,
and he described the evils of the great white plague as
they are found in his region on the very edge of the
desert. He says tuberculosis is rife among the Bedouins
although they live out of doors in the purest air all the
time. He thinks that the disease is spread largely by
the cattle. About 50 per cent, of the cows have tuber-
culosis, and the people live chiefly on milk.

Another doctor connected with the hospital tells me
that Syria had no consumption until about twenty-five
years ago, when the disease was brought in from the
United States by natives who had emigrated to our
country, contracted consumption, and brought it back
home. The Syrians had no idea what it meant, and it
rapidly spread. The sanitary conditions of this part of
the world are bad, the bacteria breed rapidly, and the
disease is sweeping the country.

And this brings me to a great work at Juneau within
a few miles of Beirut. This is a tuberculosis hospital built
there by the Church of the Covenant at Washington,
and in charge of Dr. Mary Eddy, who has become famous
throughout the Near East for her work as a medical
missionary. Miss Eddy is the daughter of the Rev.
William W. Eddy, who came to Syria many years ago
and remained here until his death. Besides being a
woman of fine education and great medical skill, she is
an expert on all matters connected with tuberculosis
and its treatment.

260

Cradles in Armenia have no sides, a wide cloth band drawn tight keeping
the baby from falling out

American flour sacks serve a double purpose among the Armenians and
Syrians in time of distress

Much of the wilderness of the Jordan will be reclaimed by irrigation
and forestation when the British-Zionist project for developing water
power along the river is completed

AMERICAN LEAVEN IN THE NEAR EAST

She is the only woman who has ever been granted an
trade, or certificate of protection, from the Sultan author-
izing her to practise as a doctor everywhere throughout
his dominions and directing that all good Turks shall
give her assistance as she goes on her way.

Miss Eddy has been working in Syria for years and has
been fighting the spread of consumption as best she could
without any hospital facilities for her patients. The
people have come and camped near her house waiting
treatment, and the tents of the Bedouins may be seen
dotting the plains near where the hospital now is. Some
of the best known men and women of our national cap-
ital have been interested in the building of this hospital
and the support of its work.

261

CHAPTER XXXI

AT THE SHRINE OF DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS

THIS morning we shall walk through the remains
of the famed city of the Ephesians. We shall
wander over the site of the great Temple of Diana,
tramp the ground where St. John was living when
he wrote his gospel, and stand in the marble market-
place where St. Paul preached. There is a tradition that
the mother of our Lord was buried here, and that here
lies also the dust of St. Timothy.

The Ephesus of the past has been brought to the light
of the present by the excavations of the Austrians. I
have told you something of their work in the Holy Land,
and especially on the site of old Jericho. They have also
dug up the ruins of other cities in Asia, and here at
Ephesus have uncovered what remains of the Temple
of Diana and found a theatre which had seats for thirty
thousand persons. They have excavated the marble docks
which led up to the city, and have done much to show
us what this great commercial centre of two thousand
years ago must have been in the height of its glory.

But first let me tell you something of the Ephesus of
the days of St. Paul. It lay here on the coast of Asia
Minor, just opposite Greece, in what was almost the
centre of the then known world. It was the chief Roman
city of Asia. It had a population of a million or more
and was famous for its learning, art, and beautiful build-

262

THE SHRINE OF DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS

ings. It was far more magnificent than Smyrna, which
was founded before it, and in which it is said the poet
Homer was born.

Ephesus dated back to a thousand years before Christ.
Some say it was founded by the Amazons, but we know
that it was largely built up by Greeks from the Ionian
Islands over the way. It was a great city in the days of
Croesus, who besieged the town in the year 510, b. a;
and later it grew so famous that Alexander the Great
wanted to change its name for his own.

Among the wonders of Ephesus was its temple to Diana,
the favourite goddess of the city. People from the cor-
ners of the earth came to worship her. Her temple was
considered one of the seven wonders of the world. It
covered more than two acres, and its mighty roof was
upheld by one hundred and twenty-seven marble columns
each as high as a six-story building. The worship of the
goddess was so famous that there grew up a business in
making statues of her and manufacturing portable
shrines which could be carried away by pilgrims. Ath-
letic games were connected with the worship, and the
month of May was sacred to her. The temple itself is
referred to in the Scriptures. In the Acts we read of
"the great goddess Diana, whom all Asia and the world
worshipped/'

Now let us have a look at the site of that temple to-day.
We have taken a special car at Smyrna and have been
pulled by a little French locomotive over the railroad to
the station of Ayasoluk forty-eight miles away across
country. We have gone through a land of vineyards
and olives where baggy-trousered peasants are pruning
the vines and working the fields. They dig about the

263

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

trees with three-tined hoes and till their crops with
donkeys and bullocks. The one-handled ploughs are
about the same as those used in ancient days. We go
over the plains which must have fed the Ephesians,
wind our way in and out through the hills, and finally
come to a little station where we get horses to carry us
out through the valley to Ephesus.

The site of the temple lies in a valley. It is not far
above the level of the sea, which we can see shining in
the sun not more than five miles away. History says it
was swampy and that the great structure was erected
upon piles. This statement is borne out by the present
conditions of the site. The excavation made in uncover-
ing the ruins is now filled with water. It is a miniature
lake filled with broken columns and capitals lying half
in and half out of the water. We stand on the banks
beside fluted columns of snow-white marble, and see
broken marble everywhere near. That man who ploughs
on the southern ridge of the sand turns up marble bits
at every step of his bullocks, and the girls behind him,
who are planting, uncover stones from the temple at
almost every stroke of their hoes.

As we look, we see no sign of the activity which pre-
vailed here two thousand years ago. Birds fly across the
lake and sing in the trees bending over it. A stork sits
sleepily on a marble rock in its midst and a frog croaks
out a welcome. A red cow is grazing there on the edge
of the water, and at my right a hog is rooting in the
debris.

Let us get on our horses and ride on down the valley to
visit the theatre which once held the actors of the chief
playhouse of Asia. Think of a theatre seating thirty

264

THE SHRINE OF DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS

thousand. It is only in recent years that we have built
in the United States amphitheatres large enough to seat
as many people as used to watch the performances here
more than two thousand years ago. This great open-air
structure was built largely of marble and altogether of
stone. The entrance to the stage was through tunnels,
and the stage was upheld by marble columns. The
seats, which were made of common stone covered with
marble, ran around the stage or rather the pit in the
shape of a half moon, rising high up the hills at the back.
They were in three stories and contained sixty-six
rows.

I measured the outline of the stage. It was about
eighteen feet wide and six or seven feet high. There are
long underground passages leading to it, and there were
eight dressing rooms on two floors at the sides of the
stage. Walking through the pit, now filled with broken
marble columns and blocks of marble beautifully carved,
I climbed down now and then and tried to imagine the
audience and the acting going on upon the marble stage
far below.

Leaving the theatre, I strolled about through the wide
streets of marble, which have been partially uncovered,
and made photographs of bits of the ruins. There is
enough of this fine stone here to build a structure equal
to our national Capitol at Washington. This is mixed
with mosaic and the broken statues of the palaces of the
past. There are pieces of friezes, columns, and capitals
lying out in the open; there are torsos of statues the
heads and feet of which have been broken off and carried
away; and also many exquisite carvings which would be
treasures to any museum. Here lies a piece of marble

265

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

drapery, the remnants of the garment of a goddess;
there the broken-up limb of an athlete, and farther on a
beautiful bit from the front of the temple.

Among the ruins are the remains of stores, houses,
and markets. I climbed over marble blocks along the
street which led to the ship canal, and stood among
broken columns in what was once the stock exchange and
wool market. In one place is an artificial terrace where
stood the great gymnasium, and in another is a market-
place two hundred feet long, surrounded by a portico,
back of which were the stalls of the marketmen. In the
mosaic floors of these stalls thirteen different kinds of
marbles were used, and marbles of various colours were
employed throughout the structure.

To-day the peasants are working all over these ruins.
Here they are planting grain, and there, cleaning the
fields, is a gang of a dozen girls working under a turbaned
man in baggy trousers. Here women are digging; farther
on a man drives a camel harnessed to a one-handled plough.
The only town near Ephesus is Ayasoluk, which has but
a few hundred inhabitants. It has, perhaps, a dozen
small stores, a railroad station, and a hotel. While at
the station I saw a white, fat lamb awaiting shipment.
It was tied to the platform, and a card fastened to one
horn bore the name of the commission merchant in Smyrna
to whom it was consigned.

Just opposite the hotel are seven tall columns which
once supported the great aqueduct which supplied Ephe-
sus with water. Each of these has now a stork's nest
on its top, and the great birds may be seen any day
standing there. I am told that they come here only for
the winter, and that they leave every spring for Holland,

266

THE SHRINE OF DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS

or perhaps for some other far-away part of the world,
every one of them carrying a baby.

Before coming to Ephesus I spent a day in Smyrna,
whither I shall return to go on to Constantinople and
Greece. Smyrna is the largest city in Asia Minor, and
has about the same position in the modern world that
Ephesus once had. The chief port of this part of the
Levant, it does a big business in shipping wool, wine,
grapes, olives, and figs. It has a foreign trade of about
fifty million dollars a year, and steamers from all parts
of the Mediterranean come to its docks.

The city lies at one end of the Gulf of Smyrna, which
is thirty-four miles long and surrounded by lofty silver-
gray mountains some of them a mile high. Its harbour
is excellent, and the town has many modern buildings.
Because of its importance in the trade of Asia Minor,
Smyrna is a centre of political and commercial interests and
the scene of fierce competition among the various nationali-
ties. Among its people there are more Greeks than Turks.

While travelling in Syria I saw many openings for
American goods. The farming there is after the methods
of centuries ago, and our ploughs, reapers, and other agri-
cultural machines might be sold. I understand that the
more progressive of the native landlords are ready to
buy. One man, who owns more than a thousand acres
of rich grainland on the high plateau between the two
ranges of the Lebanon Mountains, has offered 75 per cent,
of the profits to any American company that will culti-
vate it for two or three years, and will bring in American
machinery. The landlord also agrees, upon the ter-
mination of the lease, to pay for the machinery at the
regular price.

267

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

Some of the Syrian farmers are now using American
threshers and reapers, and some are bringing in American
ploughs. The first thresher imported was upon the advice
of our consul general at Beirut. He is a Dakota man,
who understands the farming conditions in the North-
west. He tells me that the possibilities of raising grain
in this part of the world are remarkable, and that dry
farming might be practised in many localities which now
go to waste. He thinks that old Mesopotamia can be
reclaimed by irrigation and a new Egypt created there.
He says that as political conditions improve there will
be many opportunities for commerce and industry, and
that American capital should take advantage of the
situation.

Syria and Asia Minor are now raising a great deal of
silk, which is sent to France and shipped from there to
the United States. The American residents tell me that
there is no reason why we should not buy this raw silk
direct, thus saving the Frenchman's profits and the double
transportation charges. I saw mulberry orchards every-
where during my travels in Syria. The plains about
Beirut are covered with them, and they are to be found
on both sides of the Lebanon Mountains. When the trees
have grown to the height of a man's head, they are cut
back. Green leaves from the new sprouts furnish food
for millions of silkworms. In coming from Damascus
I saw women and children picking the leaves to feed to
the worms, carrying them to sheds erected for the pur-
pose. Raising the silkworms is largely in the hands of
the women, who take care of the trees and sell the cocoons.
From the Lebanon mountain regions every year men, spe-
cially appointed, go to France to get the silkworm eggs.

268

The first steel bridge across the River Jordan was named in honour of
General Allenby. Under the British regime motor launches ply along this
most sacred stream in the world

Jerusalem now has a speed law, and its road signs are printed in
the three official languages — English, Hebrew, and Arabic — and French
besides

THE SHRINE OF DIANA OF THE EPHESIANS

For some reason those laid in the Syrian mountains do
not produce well.

"He who plants an olive tree lays up riches for his
children's children/' This saying expresses a current
belief throughout the Levant. Olives are the money
crop of a great part of Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor.
Many of the trees are hundreds of years old, and some
of them were planted before Columbus discovered Amer-
ica. I am told of an orchard near Tripoli, in Syria, which
the deeds show was established about five hundred years
ago, and the trees of which are still bearing. All the way
from Jerusalem to the Sea of Galilee I saw olive trees
that looked old enough to have been planted by Jacob.
Some of gigantic size were hollow and had been filled
with stones to aid in their support.

Many of the colonists of the Holy Land have set out
new orchards, and the Americans who live at Haifa have
trees bearing fruit every year. I am told that the crop
is very profitable, and that under reduced taxation many
more trees will be planted. The fruit is raised for the
oil. A ton of olives yields about seventy gallons of oil.
Asia Minor already leads the world in its production
of olive oil, producing about two or three hundred
thousand more barrels per annum than either Spain
or Italy.

Another important crop of the region about Smyrna is
the fig, which grows better here than in almost any other
part of the globe. More than three hundred thousand
camel-loads are raised in some years, and they are
shipped all over the world. The trees begin to bear in
their sixth year, and are at their best ten years after
planting. The figs ripen about the first of August, and

269

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

when fully matured fall to the ground. They are dried
in the sun, then packed in bags for the market.

A great many of these figs go to America, where you
will find them in all the fruit and grocery stores. Our
part of the crop is carefully packed, there being several
American firms here which do nothing else. The figs
are first sorted according to the thickness of the skin and
size of the fruit. The poorest are thrown away or used
for distilling purposes, and the best are put up for ex-
port in boxes and jars. The price here varies from two
to eight cents a pound, the very finest of the figs bringing
the latter figure.

A great deal of the packing is done in the city of
Smyrna to which the fruit is brought in from all parts
of the country. Some of it comes on the railways, on
cars especially built for the traffic, and some is carried
on camels. As it is important that the fruit be not
bruised, that carried in the cars is laid upon shelves
built one above the other, so that there is no danger of
the figs being crushed or bruised.

270

CHAPTER XXXII

ARMENIA, THE SUFFERING

/RMENIA is the Job among peoples. Her frightful
i sufferings seem to have no end. A little Chris-
% tian island in a vast sea of Mohammedanism,
• she has been swept by one great tidal wave of
persecution after another. Before the eyes of the modern
world, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, even,
a whole people has been robbed, exiled, and murdered,
while the great nations have looked on apparently help-
less to bring to a permanent end the horrible atrocities
committed by the " unspeakable Turk."

Millions of dollars have been spent in the past for the
aid of Armenia, millions more will be required before she
is freed from famine and persecution. Vast sums have
been donated by Americans through their churches and
missionary societies, the Red Cross, and other national
and international organizations to help these people in
their misery. But lasting relief cannot come until Ar-
menia is enabled to set up a nation of her own once more,
or is brought under the protection of a strong Christian
power.

What the Armenians have done under oppression shows
that they have great possibilities as a race. They are
sometimes called the Yankees of the Orient. They are
the brightest, brainiest, and shrewdest of all the people
of Asia Minor. In business they are sharper than the

271

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

Jews or even the Greeks. The Turks say, "Twist a
Yankee and you make a Jew, twist a Jew and you make
an Armenian. " The Greeks say that "one Greek is
equal to two Jews, but one Armenian is equal to two
Greeks." Another current Turkish proverb is, "From
the Greeks of Athens, from the Jews of Saloniki, and
from the Armenians everywhere, good Lord deliver
us!"

The Armenians are by no means confined to one part
of the Orient. I have met them everywhere in the East
and I have found them acting as heads of all kinds of
businesses. There are many rich Armenians in India.
Coming from Singapore to Calcutta I travelled with a
wealthy Armenian jeweller who told me he was on his
way back from Hong Kong where he had gone to sell
pearls to the Chinese. I found Armenian conductors
on the Egyptian railways, and when I went over the
transcontinental railroad to Paris the guards on the
train and the men who took up my tickets were Armen-
ians who spoke English and French. There are hun-
dreds of thousands of Armenians in Europe. There are
a large number in Persia, and in different parts of Turkey
there are said to be about one million. There are a great
many in Constantinople where they manage most of the
banking business and own large mercantile establishments.
When I got money on my letter of credit in Constanti-
nople it was an Armenian clerk who figured up the
exchange and an Armenian cashier who handed out the
money. Whenever there are riots in that city nearly all
the stores are closed because their Armenian owners fear
they may be looted by the mob. When I visited the
Turkish government departments I found that, though

272

ARMENIA, THE SUFFERING

the chief officers were Turks, the clerks were in most
cases Armenians, and the cleverest man I met in Turkey
was one of the Sultan's secretaries, a man of Armenian
birth. There are also Armenian engineers, architects,
and doctors in Constantinople. The Armenians of Ar-
menia proper, however, are almost all farmers, most of
whom have become poverty-stricken through the ex-
horbitant taxes of the Sultan.

At Jerusalem I saw a large number of Armenian pil-
grims who had come from all parts of Asia Minor to
pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They have
a Patriarch at Jerusalem who leads them in these cele-
brations. He is a tall, thin man with a long gray beard
and a face not unlike that of the typical Georgia cracker.
He usually wears a long gown and has a little skull cap
on the crown of his head. During the Easter celebration
he wears a tiara blazing with diamonds and his gown is
a gorgeous silk robe decorated with diamonds. The Ar-
menian Christians have doctrines much like those of the
Greek Church. They have monasteries and churches
scattered throughout Asia Minor.

Armenia was the first country in the world to adopt
Christianity as a state religion. This she did at the
beginning of the fourth century and twelve years before
the conversion of the Roman emperor, Constantine.
Ever since she has been persecuted by a succession of
enemies and conquerors of other faiths. Almost as soon
as Christianity had been adopted, the Armenians were
commanded by the Persians, their overlords at that time,
to give up their faith and adopt the Persian religion of
fire-worship. They replied: "No one can move us from
our belief, neither angels nor men, fire nor sword. Here

273

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

below we will choose no other God, and in heaven no
other Lord but Jesus Christ." And they have stuck to
their declaration through all the horrors and persecutions
brought upon them by Persians, Saracens, Tartars,
Mamelukes, and Turks.

At her height Armenia was a flourishing country with
a population of some thirty millions. But from the time
of the great dispersal that resulted from the invasion of
the Moslem hordes in the seventh century, the Armenians,
like the Jews, have been decimated, their country has
been ravaged, and the people have been scattered all
over Europe and Asia.

The Armenians assert that their country is the holiest
land upon earth. It lies in Asia Minor, southeast of the
Black Sea and between it and Persia. Mount Ararat is
situated in Armenia, and some of the monasteries claim
to have pieces of the identical ark in which Noah landed
upon this mountain. A ravine near by is pointed out as
the site of Noah's vineyard. The vineyard has a mon-
astery connected with it, and the monks show a withered
old vine which they assert is the very one from which
Noah brewed the wine that made him drunk. He cursed
it so effectually after he got over his spree that it has
borne no grapes unto this day. Noah's wife is said to
be buried on Mount Ararat. The Armenians trace their
ancestry back to Japheth in one great genealogical tree.
They also have a tradition that the Garden of Eden was
located in Armenia, almost in the centre of the region
where the worst massacres have occurred, but it is now
one of the barren parts of the country. The Armenians
believe that the Wise Men of the East, who followed the
Star of Bethlehem to find the young Christ, came from

274

ARMENIA, THE SUFFERING

their country and that the Star first appeared in the heav-
ens not far from Mount Ararat.

According to another curious Armenian tradition, when
Adam was in the Garden of Eden his body was covered
with nails, like those we have on our fingers and toes.
These nails overlapped each other like the scales of a
fish, thus giving him an invulnerable armour, After the
fall they all dropped off except those from the ends of
his fingers and toes. They remain to this day to remind
man of his lost immortality. The Armenians say that
when God made Adam of clay, he had a little piece left
over. He threw this upon the ground, and as it fell it
became gold and formed all the gold of the world. These
people are devoted to the Bible, and take their religion
very seriously. They could have made their peace with
the Turks long, long ago if they had been willing to
accept Mohammedanism.

The condition of the women of Armenia is said to be
terrible. They have no refuge from the Turks, who
perpetrate all sorts of outrages upon them. In some of
the Armenian cities during one of the massacres the girls
were collected into the churches and kept there for days
at the pleasure of the soldiers before they were murdered.
One statement described how sixty young brides were
so treated and how the blood ran out under the church
doors at the time of their massacre.

These Armenian women are among the most attractive
of the Near East. I have seen a number of them during
my trip through Asia Minor. They have large, dark,
luminous eyes with long eyelashes, and rich, creamy
complexions. Many of them have rosy cheeks and lus-
cious red lips. They are tall and straight, but become

275

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

fat soon after marriage. Not a few of them are married
to Turks. These women have a dress of their own.
They wear red fez caps with long tassels much like some
of the country girls of Greece. The richer ladies wear
loose jackets lined with fur, and long plain skirts of silk
or fine wool. In the province of Van, where many atroc-
ities have been committed, the girls wear under their
skirts trousers which are tied at the ankles. Some have
long, sleeveless jackets, or cloaks, reaching almost to the
feet and open at the sides up to the waists, and others
wear gorgeous headdresses, covering the front of their
caps with gold coins, which hang down over their fore-
heads. Like the Jewesses, these girls often wear their
whole dowries on their persons, and in massacres like
those which have so often occurred rings are torn from
the ears, arms are cut off for bracelets, and many a woman
is killed for her jewellery. The poorer women are hard
workers. Nearly every household has some kind of home
industry whereby it adds to its income. Some of the
finest embroideries we get from Turkey are made by these
clever Armenian women, the best of the work being done
by hand in hovels.

The houses in which the Armenians live are different
in different countries. In many of the cities of Turkey
there is an Armenian quarter, and the older Armenian
houses of Smyrna are built like forts. They have no
windows facing the street, and only of late years, when
the people have considered themselves safe from religious
riots, have they built houses more like the Turks. In
Armenia itself the poorer classes have homes which
would be considered hardly fit for cows in America.
The cow, in fact, lives with the family. The houses

276

ARMENIA, THE SUFFERING

are all of one story, and it is not uncommon to
build a house against the side of a hill in order to save
the making of a back wall. The roofs are flat, and are
often covered with earth upon which grass and flowers
grow, and upon which the sheep are sometimes pastured.
The floors are usually sunken below the level of the road-
way, and the ordinary window is about the size of a port-
hole. You go down steps to enter the house, where you
find a cow stable on one side and the kitchen and living
quarters of the family on the other.

All the living arrangements are of the simplest and
cheapest description. Each room has a stone fireplace
where the cooking is done with cow dung mixed with
straw. There are no tables and very few chairs. The
animal heat of the cattle aids the fire in keeping the fam-
ily warm. The houses of the better class are more com-
fortable, and in the big Turkish cities some of the rich
Armenians have beautiful homes. The Armenian women
are good housekeepers and much more cleanly than the
Turks. Even their hovels are kept clean.

They have a better home life than the Turks. A man
can have but one wife, but the families of several gene-
rations often live in one house. If the daughter-in-law
lives with them, she is, to a large extent, the servant of
her husband's family. She has to obey her father-in-
law, and during the first days of her married life is not
allowed to speak to her husband's parents or any of the
family who are older than herself until her father-in-law
gives her permission. Up to this time she wears a red
veil, as a badge of her subjection, which is often kept on
until her first baby is born.

Armenian girls are married very young. Eleven or

277

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

twelve is considered quite old enough, and women still
young often have sons twenty years old. Marriages are
arranged by parents or by go-betweens. The usual wed-
ding day is Monday, and on the Friday before the mar-
riage the bride is taken to the bath with great ceremony.
On Saturday she gives a big feast to her girl friends. On
Sunday there is a feast for the boys, and on Monday the
wedding takes place. It usually occurs at the church,
where the priest blesses the ring and makes prayers over
the wedding garments. The numerous other ceremonies
make the wedding last from three to eight days. Shortly
after her return from the church the children present rush
to pull off the bride's stockings, in which have been hidden
some coins for the occasion. Another curious custom is
to place a baby boy on the knee of the bride, as she sits
beside the groom on a divan, with the wish that she may
become a happy mother.

While one reason for the hatred of the Armenians
is envy of their shrewdness and their wealth, the chief
cause of the Turkish outrages is religious fanaticism.
The better classes of the Turks and the more intelligent
of the Mohammedans would probably stop them if they
could. Many of the high officials are afraid of the reli-
gious zeal of the people. They realize that if the common
people get the idea that they are false to their religion,
they are almost sure of assassination. The Imams and
the Sheiks, or, in other words, the Moslem priests, are, to
a large extent, the rulers of Turkey. They are in most
cases ignorant and intolerant.

Among the Mohammedan fanatics there are a large
number known as dervishes, who roam about from place
to place stirring up trouble. They are walking delegates,

278

ARMENIA, THE SUFFERING

as it were, for the killing of Christians. They stimulate
the religious zeal of the people and make violent speeches
against unbelievers. They fast much and they have
strange forms of worship. One class, known as the
whirling dervishes, may be seen in Constantinople any
Friday going through their devotions. They dress in
long white robes fastened at the waists with black belts,
and wear high sugar-loaf hats. They sing the Koran as
they whirl about in the mosques. As they go on the chief
priest makes prayers and they whirl faster and faster,
until at last their long skirts stand out like those of a
ballet dancer. Their faces become crimson, and some
finally fall to the ground in fits.

Another class of these fanatics are the howlers, who
have a great organization in Turkey, and have probably
been largely concerned in inciting feeling against the
Armenians. I have visited their mosques, but I despair
of adequately describing their religious gymnastics. They
work themselves into a frenzy, jumping and bending,
and gasping and howling out the name of God. The
dervishes of the interior parts of Turkey often take
knives and cut themselves and each other in religious
ecstasy. They go into fits and foam at the mouth, and
most of them think that the killing of a Christian is a sure
passport to heaven. I would say, however, that these
people are the cranks of Mohammedanism, and that
they are not a fair sample of the Moslem world. Never-
theless, they have had no small part in bringing about
the miseries of Armenia.

279

CHAPTER XXXIII

PALESTINE AND SYRIA UNDER NEW RULERS

SWITCH on your radiophone and let us listen to-
gether this evening to a talk from Jerusalem
| where John Bull sits in the seats of the mighty
and the voice of the terrible Turk is no more
heard in the land. The Holy City is quiet. The women
are sitting, as of old, on the housetops under the stars,
while across the valley on the Mount of Olives sparks
from the wireless tower flash out to the corners of our
modern world.

If we listen carefully we may hear the familiar chug-
chug of an American automobile whose driver to-morrow
will take a party of pilgrims over the road to Bethlehem.
Or perhaps he will start on the longer trip to the ruins of
old Jericho and the River Jordan, or even a tour of all
the Holy Land, most of which can now be reached in a
motor car.

As we listen we learn that the High Commissioner,
who rules in the name of His Britannic Majesty, met
to-day with his advisory council, representing the people
of Palestine. From the report of their proceedings we
learn what is going on in the reborn Promised Land.
This council has ten members appointed by the Com-
missioner. Four of them are Moslems, who make up
four fifths of the population of Palestine, three are Jews,
identified with the Zionist movement, and three are

280

PALESTINE AND SYRIA UNDER NEW RULERS

Christians. Just as the membership of the advisory
council is divided among the three groups for whom
Jerusalem is a holy place and a religious centre, so, too,
are the positions in the government to-day held by Chris-
tians, Jews, and Mohammedans. There are three official
languages — Arabic, English, and Hebrew.

The government, we are told, is in good condition,
and the country is self-supporting, paying its way out
of its revenues. Nevertheless, the taxes with which the
Turks used to squeeze and harness the people have been
reduced and some of them have been abolished. At
the same time, where the Turk and his tax-gatherers, as
the Arabs say, "never gave us so much as a drink of cold
water," the new rulers are providing much-needed im-
provements with the public funds.

Before the British came the Arabs had a saying that
the Turk would rule the Holy Land until the Nile flowed
into Palestine. This ancient prophecy has been almost
literally fulfilled, for when the British built the military
railroad from Egypt into Palestine they laid all the way
beside it a pipe-line carrying water pumped from the Nile.
A great tank in the hills on the Hebron road, built by
Pontius Pilate, has been restored, and now holds five
million gallons of water, which is piped into Jerusalem.
The streets have been cleaned, the beginnings of a sewerage
system put in, and the natives have started to learn the
use of a covered garbage can. Even the mosquitoes,
descendants of those who bit the Crusaders, have been
driven out and have gone to the other side of Jordan to
smite the Bedouins. Plans for the further extension of
the city beyond the walls have been prepared, and its
growth will be directed accordingly.

281

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

A native police force has been recruited to keep order
in the place of the troops which have been gradually
reduced in number. All the holy places are still carefully
protected. The British were able to keep the Mosque
of Omar under Moslem guard by using soldiers from their
own Indian troops made up of followers of the Prophet.

The men of a New Zealand regiment who were Masons
held a meeting in the secret cavern under the Holy Rock
in the Mosque said to be the place where King Solomon
founded their order. There were thirty-two Masons
from twenty-seven different lodges, who took part in
this meeting, while an old sheik acted as doorkeeper.

The differences in religion keep bobbing up in Jeru-
salem, giving the British and the advisory council some
ticklish questions to deal with. For example, when the
military bands started to give concerts in a public square
in the outer city, they played three afternoons a week —
Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Grand Mufti,
head of the Jerusalem Moslems, solemnly protested,
saying the band played Saturday for the Jewish Sab-
bath and on Sunday for the Christians, but was slighting
the Mohammedans, who observed Friday. So now the
bands play four days a week.

Another thing the British did gratified the Christians.
Under Turkish rule the Church of the Nativity at Beth-
lehem was disfigured by a wall separating the Greek choir
and chancel from the nave and basilica, which is common
to Orthodox and Catholic alike. This wall they tore down,
so that now the whole church is open to view.

As a result of the war, and the cruelties of the Turks,
the population of Jerusalem shrank from eighty thousand
to sixty thousand, while Jaffa was almost depopulated.

282

PALESTINE AND SYRIA UNDER NEW RULERS

With British control, however, the people flocked back
again, and a rapid increase is expected all through the
Holy Land. The country itself suffered almost as much
as the people from the outrages of both the Turks and the
Germans. Crops were seized to feed the soldiers, while
hundreds of thousands of olive and other trees were cut
down to make fuel for locomotives. The Germans
blasted out the trees with dynamite, destroying the roots
so that no sprouts could spring up. Whole sections of
Palestine were stripped bare, and at the same time cat-
tle and sheep were taken away and killed. In some places
the people burned nearly everything they had to keep
the Turks from getting their possessions.

The British are working on a vast scheme of refores-
tation in connection with their irrigation plans. They
are encouraging a project for building a dam in the River
Jordan, above Tiberias and the Sea of Galilee, which will
furnish power for irrigation pumps and light and energy
for all Palestine. Great nurseries have been established
at Gaza, where Samson threw down the temple of the
Philistines. In one operation, more than one hundred
thousand timber trees and ninety thousand fruit trees
were set out.

The new rulers of the Holy Land hope to restore agri-
culture, which fell into decay under the Turks, chiefly on
account of the excessive taxes on the farmers. Local
meetings of natives have been held throughout the
country, to find out what the farmers needed most, and
to put them in touch with sources of supply. There was
found to be a great shortage of farm implements and
machines, such as mowers, horse rakes, and other equip-
ment. To encourage the natives, the sum of two million

283

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

five hundred thousand dollars was set aside to be loaned
by the Anglo- Egyptian Bank of Palestine for improve-
ments on their lands. Within three years after the war
Palestine agriculture produced more than two million
bushels of wheat, one million bushels of barley, one and
one quarter million bushels of millet, six thousand tons
of grapes, and one hundred and fifty thousand gallons of
olive oil. The number of sheep and goats was estimated
at more than a quarter of a million of each. Figs are
grown in upper Galilee, but not so many as will be the
case when shipping facilities are provided. For the
second year under British control, the import trade of
Palestine amounted to not quite twenty million dollars,
most of which was with Great Britain and Egypt. The
people import foodstuffs such as rice and sugar, and buy
a great quantity of cotton goods.

Some think that Palestine may become a second
Switzerland and grow rich on the visitors to the country.
For many years both pilgrims and tourists have been
going to the Holy Land by the thousands, but little has
ever been done for either their comfort or their conve-
nience. With the country under good management by
the British, and modern conditions provided, more people
will want to make the trip. Many thousands of Pal-
estinians could undoubtedly be employed at a profit in
serving the visitors and selling them goods.

Communications in Palestine have been greatly im-
proved and extended. Besides the military railway from
Egypt, General Allenby and the British built more than
two hundred miles of highways, and these are being added
to all the time. There are now four hundred and eighty
miles of railroad track and five hundred and twenty-three

284

PALESTINE AND SYRIA UNDER NEW RULERS

miles of public highways. The cars on the line from
Egypt to the Holy Land are comfortable, and sleeping
and eating accommodations are provided. One may ride
from Cairo to Ludd, and there connect with the Jaffa-
Jerusalem line, or continue on to Haifa, whence the jour-
ney may be continued for twelve hours over the French
railroad to Damascus. Every two weeks aeroplanes
carry mail from Egypt and Palestine across the desert
into Mesopotamia, where the British are developing the
large interests they gained there as a result of the war.
The Zionists have revived an old plan for a two-hundred-
and-fifty-mile ship canal through Palestine as a supple-
ment to the Suez Canal, but it does not seem likely that
this scheme will be worked out with the British control-
ling Palestine and the Suez Canal.

The British plan to extend into Mesopotamia the
railroad system already connecting Palestine and Egypt,
so as to link up the countries of three rivers, the Nile,
the Jordan, and the Euphrates. This will supplement
the Berlin-to-Bagdad line which the Germans thought
would give them control over a new eastern empire.
Another project that is now much talked of is to dig a
tunnel thirty-seven miles long under the hills to carry
water from the streams along the coast of the Mediter-
ranean into the Jordan. The fact that the Jordan is far
below sea level makes this physically possible, even if
not economically practicable. Extensive improvements
are planned for Haifa, which as a port and the terminus
of the railroads to Damascus and Jerusalem will be an
important place in the future. The British also expect
to empty into ships at Haifa the oil they plan to pipe
across the desert from Mesopotamia. Haifa used to be

285

THE HOLY LAND AND SYRIA

great in ancient days, when it was the chief landing place
of the Crusaders and the transfer point in the early
trade between Venice and the Far East. It is now pre-
dicted that its population of twenty thousand will in-
crease to one hundred thousand within ten years.

The French have a mandate for Syria, as the British
have for Palestine, and the boundaries of both regions
have been redrawn. Damascus is included in the ter-
ritory under French control. Syria is nominally inde-
pendent, and the natives have not been altogether satis-
fied with the way the French have governed their country
since the Sultan's power was overthrown.

Very little has been left of the Turkish possessions, as
Armenia has been declared independent, and the Greeks
given a footing in Smyrna and the surrounding district.
Once these regions become adjusted to the new con-
ditions following the war, it is believed they will enter
upon a new era of prosperity and rapid development of
their many rich resources.

THE END

286

SEEING THE WORLD

WITH

Frank G. Carpenter

Choosing a travelling companion is one of life's most try-
ing moments. The man with whom we feel we can be
quite happy throughout a journey — whose tastes, interests,
and viewpoint are like our own — is often hard to find.

Millions of Americans have found Frank G. Carpenter
their ideal fellow traveller. Reading Carpenter has meant
for them seeing the world, and with him they have jour-
neyed to all parts of the globe. He never bores, preaches,
or propagandizes, but tells his readers what they want
to know, shows them what they want to see, and makes
them feel that they are there.

In order to extend this opportunity of "Seeing the World
with Carpenter/' Doubleday, Page & Company have ar-
ranged to publish CARPENTER'S WORLD TRAVELS,
the story of his three hundred thousand miles of journeys
over the globe, of which this book, "The Holy Land and
Syria" is the first volume. Succeeding volumes to be
published immediately, include:

From Tangier to Tripoli,
Morocco, Algeria, Tunis,
Tripoli, and the Sahara.
Alaska,

Our Northern Wonderland
The End of the Hemisphere,
Chile and Argentina.
287

SEEING THE WORLD

From Cairo to Kisumu.
Egypt, the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and
British East Africa,
and twenty other volumes, covering the world.

These books are familiar talks about the countries and
peoples of the earth, with the author on the spot and the
reader in his home. Carpenter makes his readers see
what he sees, and they feel they are on the spot with him.

This is the only work of its kind. No other single
author has visited all the countries of the world and writ-
ten on the spot, in plain and simple language, the story of
what he has found. CARPENTER'S WORLD TRAV-
ELS are not the casual record of incidents of the journey,
but the painstaking study of a trained observer, devoting
his life to the task of world-wide reporting. Each book
is complete in itself; together they form the most vivid,
interesting, and understandable picture of our modern
world yet published. They are the fruit of more than
thirty years of unparalleled success in writing for the
American people through the medium of their greatest
newspapers. They are a fitting climax to Mr. Carpenter's
distinguished services to the teaching of geography in our
public schools, which have used some four million copies
of the Carpenter Geographical Readers.

In the present state of the world, a knowledge of its
countries and peoples is essential to an understanding of
what is going on, of how all that is happening affects us, and
why. Carpenter takes his readers to the lands of the news,
and makes more real the daily flashes by cable and radio.

A word to your bookseller, or a line to the publishers, will
enable you to secure each volume of Carpenter's World
Travels as it appears.

288

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A N ENORMOUS number of books on the Holy Land
i\ have been written, some few of which have be-
/ % come standard works, in spite of having been
A. m* written a generation ago. Among these the most
familiar, perhaps, are Dean Stanley's " Sinai and Pales-
tine," in many editions, and G. A. Smith's "Historical
Geography of the Holy Land," thirteenth edition, London,
1907, and the same author's "Atlas of the Historical Ge-
ography of the Holy Land," London, 191 5. The following
brief list is a selection from the most recent publications :

Baedeker. "Syria and Palestine" Guidebook. London, 191 2.
Bell, Gertrude. "Syria." London, 1919.

Bentwich, Norman. "Palestine and the Jews, Past, Present, and
Future." London, 19 19.

Copping, Arthur E. "A Journalist in the Holy Land." London, 191 1.

Gordon, Ben L. "New Judea: Jewish Life in Modern Palestine."
Philadelphia, 1919.

Grant, Elihu. "Peasantry of Palestine." New York, 1907.

Great Britain. "Handbook of Syria" (including Palestine) Pre-
pared by Naval Intelligence Division, British Admiralty. Lon-
don, 1 92 1.

"Syria and Palestine," Historical section British Foreign Office —
No. 60. London, 1921.
Hichens, Robert. "The Holy Land" illus. by Jules Guerin. New
York, 1 9 10.

Hilprecht, H. V. "Explorations in Bible Lands during the 19th

Century." Philadelphia, 1903.
Huntington, Ellsworth. "Palestine and Its Transformation."

Boston, 191 1.

289

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hyamson, A. M. "Palestine: the Rebirth of an Ancient People."
London, 191 7.

Jastrow, Morris. "Zionism and the Future of Palestine." New
York, 191 9.

Lees, G. Robinson. "Village Life in Palestine." London, 1905.
Lock, H. O. "The Conquest of Palestine." London, 1920.
Mudrum, Nadra. "La Syrie de Demain." Paris, 1916.
Maxwell, Donald. "A Painter in Palestine." London, 192 1.
y Pirie-Gordon, H. "Guidebook to Northern Palestine and Southern
Syria." Jerusalem, 1920.

"Guide Book to Central Syria." Jerusalem, 1920.
Ruppin, A. "Syrien als Wirthschaftsgebiet" (Also in English).

Berlin, 191 7.
"The Jews of To-day." New York, 19 13.
Samne, G. "La Syrie." Paris, 192 1.

Sampter, Jessie, Editor. "A Guide to Zionism." New York, 1920.
Sidebotham, H. "England and Palestine." London, 1919.
Sokolow, N. "History of Zionism." London and New York, 1919.
Szold, Henrietta. "Recent Progress in Palestine." New York,
1920.

Wilbushewitz, N. "The Industrial Development of Palestine."
London, 1920

290

INDEX

Abraham, sacrificial rock of, 64.

Agriculture, in the Land of Goshen, 6;
in Palestine, 159.

Allenby, General, the successful Cru-
sader, 1.

Alouf, Dr. Michel, archaeologist at

Baalbek, 239.
American cemetery at Jerusalem

purchased by trickery by Germans

who remove bodies, 44, 250.
American colonies in the Holy Land,

172.

American education in the Near East,
252.

American Medical Unit in Palestine,
202.

American store in Jerusalem, 174.
American trade, opportunities for, in

Syria, 267.
Ananias, house of, at Damascus,

212.

Andromeda, the rocks of, 18.
Anglo-Israelite Colonization Society,

work of, 1 70, 1 76.
Ararat, Mount, in Armenia, 274.
Armenia, the sufferings of, 271.
Armenian Patriarch at Jerusalem, 273.
Armenian women, costumes of, 276;

marriage customs, 277.
Armenians, as sharp traders, 271.
Ascension, Chapel of the, 127.
Asyut, American college at, 252.
Ayasoluk, railway station for Ephe-

sus, 263, 266.

Baal, worship of, 235.
Baalbek, ruins of the ancient city, 232.
Babel, Tower of, at Baalbek, 234.
Bacchus, temple of, at Baalbek, 236.
Banias, at source of the Jordan, 130.
Baptisms in the Jordan, 55.
Bashan, compared with Bible times,
32.

Bazaars of Jerusalem, in.
Beeroth, 155.

Bees and honey of Palestine, 164.

Beirut, American college at, 256;

college has largest publishing house

in the Orient, 259.
Beitin, the ancient Bethel, 155.
Berlin-to-Bagdad scheme, Germany's,

249.

Bethany, of to-day, 123.
Bethel, now called Beitin, 155.
Bethlehem, visits to, 138.
Birthplace of Christ, the, 144.
Bliss, Dr. Howard S., difficulties with

the literary censorship, 255; handles

a strike of Moslem students, 257.
Boaz, Field of, 140, 141.
Bomb for the Church of the Holy

Sepulchre, 107.
Bread bakers of Jerusalem, 1 15.
Brickmaking at Bubastis, 9.
Bridge of Jacob's Daughters, 131.
British government of Palestine and

Syria, 280.
British mandate over Palestine, 197.
Bubastis, city of cat worship, 9.

Caiaphas, the house of, 44.
Cain and Abel, Moslem tradition of,
246.

Calvary, the site as located by General
Gordon, 46.

Camels and their use, 164.

Cana, village of, 195.

Candies of Damascus, 218.

Capernaum, excavations at, 192.

Carmelite nunnery on Mount of
Olives, 126.

Cat worship, at Bubastis, 9.

Catacombs of Jerusalem, 60.

Cave dwellers in Jerusalem, 39.

Cedars of Lebanon, 240.

Cemeteries, weddings in, 83.

Censorship of reading matter by Turk-
ish officials, 255.

Chapel of the Ascension, 127.

Chapel of the Manger, 146.

Children of the Holy Land, 182

Christ, Tomb of, 90.

293

INDEX

Christians barred from railroads to

Mohammedan holy cities, 242.
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 48, 88.
Church of the Lord's Prayer, the, 126.
Church of the Nativity, 144.
Costumes of Damascus women, 224.
Crucifixion, relics of the, 91.

Damascus, the world's oldest city,
204; the heart of the Mohammedan
world, 209; massacres of Christians
at, in modern times, 209, 217;
bazaars of, 214; foreign trade, 220;
manufacture of jewellery, 221.

Damascus- Beirut railway, travels on,
246.

David, Tower of, 36.

David-Goliath battlefield, 25.

Day of Judgment, the Mohammedan

belief, 46.
Dead Sea, the, 129, 131, 135.
Dervishes, fanaticism of the, 278.
Diana, temple of, at Ephesus, 263.
Divorce, in Damascus, 225.
Donkeys, their use in the Holy Land,

164.

Dorcas, the tomb of, 21.

Easter Week in Jerusalem, 48, 55, 84.
Ebal, Mount, 157.

Eddy, Dr. Mary, work of, as medical

missionary, 260.
Education, American, in the Near

East, 252.
Elijah, the cave of, 122.
Elisha, the fountain of, 122.
Ephesus, excavations at, 262.
Eucalyptus, introduction of the, 170.
Evil Eye, belief in the, 78.
Excavations, at Baalbek, German,

234; at Ephesus, 262; at Jericho,

119.

Farming in Palestine, 159.

Fat-tailed sheep, 141.

Fatima, tomb of, at Damascus, 210.

Field of Boaz, 140, 141.

Field of Peas, the, 142.

Field of the Shepherds, the, 142.

Figs, production of, in Syria, 269.

Fishermen of the Sea of Galilee, 189.

Flight into Egypt, the, 10.

Flowers of Palestine, the, 165.

Foot washing, the ceremony of, 95.

Franz Josef, costly gifts of, to the

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, 50.
French-Jewish Society, work of, 171.
Fuel, scarcity of, 33.

Gabriel's Spring, Nazareth, 180.
Gadarenes, land of the, 188.
Galilee, Sea of, 131, 187.
Garden of Gethsemane, the, 127.
German church at Jerusalem, 43, 249,
250.

German colonies in Palestine, 248.
German excavations at Baalbek, 234.
German hospice at Jerusalem, 249.
Germany's methods in the Near East,
249.

Gerizim, Mount, Samaritan Passover

sacrifice on, 1 50.
Gethsemane, Garden of, 46, 127.
Gezer, excavations at, 27.
Gifts to the churches, 108.
Gihon, Pool of, 139.
Gilead, compared with Bible times,

32.

Gomorrah and Sodom, sites of, 137.

Good Samaritan Inn, the, 125.

Gordon, General, site of Calvary lo-
cated by, 46; believed Place of the
Skull the scene of the Crucifixion,
154.

Goshen, in Joseph's time and now, 4;
a land of gardens, 6.

Graveyard marriages, superstition re-
garding, 82.

Great Mosque, the, at Damascus, 207.

Greek Church, a great factor in the
the religious life of the Holy Land,
53; strength of, 10 1, 109.

Hadassah Medical Organization, work

of, in Palestine, 202.
Hamlin, Rev. Cyrus, organizer of

Robert College, Constantinople,

254.

Hardegg, American hotel keeper at
Jaffa, 19.

Hebrew art, revival of, 201.

Herzl, Dr. Theodore, founder of Zion-
ist movement, 198.

Hezekiah, Pool of, 35, 36.

Holy Family, route of, into Egypt, 10.

Holy fire, "miracle" of the, 98.

Holy Land, returned to Christian and
Jew, 1.

2Q4

INDEX

Holy Sepulchre, Church of the, 48, 88.
Holy Week, in Jerusalem, 48, 55, 84.
Huleh, Lake, 131.

Irrigation, in Mesopotamia, British
plans for, 248; in the Land of
Goshen, 6.

Jacob's Daughters, Bridge of, 131.
Jacob's Well, 152.

Jaffa, the city of Jonah, 14; one of the
world's worst harbours, 16; lumber
for Solomon's Temple landed at,
17, 66, 241.

Jaffa-Jerusalem railroad, the, 26.

Jaffa to Jerusalem, the journey from,
32.

Jehoshaphat, Valley of, 44.
Jeremiah, Lamentations of, where

written, 46; chanting of, 76.
Jericho, excavations at, 1 19; arriving

at, 123.

Jerusalem, growth of the city, 37; ma-
terials used in house construction
in, 38; the mecca of millions, 40;
the building of the walls, 45; pil-
grimage city of the world, 48; Jews
barred from, 68; mean temperature
of, 130; increase in population under
the British, 282.

Jesus's Spring, in Nazareth, 180.

Jewellery, manufacture of, in Damas-
cus, 221.

Jewels bestowed by pilgrims to Jeru-
salem, 50.

Jewish Colonies, development of, 169.

Jews, coming into their own, 68;
classes of, in Palestine, 69; dress
and customs of, 71; superstitions
of, 78.

Jonah, story of, 16.

Jonah's city, Jaffa, 14.

Jordan River, long and crooked, 30;
the blessing of the water, 55; bap-
tisms in, 56; travels along the, 129;
source of, 130.

Jordan Valley, the, 129; mean tem-
perature of, 130.

Judas's betrayal of Christ, spot of, 128.

Judea, via the railway, 23.

Juneau, tuberculosis hospital at, 260.

Kaiserin Augusta, hospice on Mount

of Olives in honour of, 249.
Kedron, gardens of, 44.

Kedron, Valley of, 1 54.
Kersting, Father, excavations in Naza-
reth, 180.

Lake Huleh, 131.

Lamentations of Jeremiah, where
written, 46; chanting of the, 76.

Lazarus, tomb of, 123.

Law of Moses, Samaritan parchment
of the, 1 50.

Lebanon, cedars of, 240.

Lebanon Mountains, scantily forested,
240.

Livestock in the Land of Goshen, 6.
Lord's Prayer, the Church of the, 125.
Lot's wife, the pillar of salt, 137.
Louse Market, Damascus, 217.

Machinery, American, needed in

Syria, 267.
Magi, Well of the, 141.
Mandeville, Sir John, first report of

the cotton plant, 5.
Manger, Chapel of the, 146.
Markets of Jerusalem, the, 117.
Marriage and divorce customs of the

Holy Land, 226.
Marriage at early age in Palestine,

184.

Marriage customs in Armenia, 277.

Mary and Martha, house of, at
Bethany, 124.

Mary's Well, Nazareth, 180.

Masons, meeting of, in the Mosque of
Omar, 282.

Massacres of Christians in Damascus
in modern times, 209, 217.

Mecca, railroad to, 242; Moslem pil-
grimages to, 209; pilgrimages to,
a means of distribution of civilized
ideas, 258.

Medical missionaries in the Orient,
259.

Mesopotamia, British plans for irriga-
tion in, 248; agricultural possibil-
ities of, 268.

"Miracle" of the holy fire, the, 98.

Mizpah, where Saul was anointed
king, 25, 154.

Moab, compared with Bible times, 32.

Modern innovations in the Holy
Land, 1.

Money changers, customs of the, 87,
in.

Montefiore colonies at Jerusalem, 171.

295

INDEX

Moriah, Mount, 57.

Moses, where found, in the Nile bul-
rushes, 11.

Moses' Tabernacle, site of, 65.

Mosque of Omar, water supply for,
34; on site of Solomon's Temple, 36,
48; history of, 62; kept under Mos-
lem guard by the British, 282.

Mosques and praying carriages on
Mecca railway, 243.

Mount Ebal, 157.

Mount Moriah, 57.

Mount Nebo, 129, 134.

Mount of Olives, 30, 125.

Mount Scopus, 154.

Naam, the Syrian, house of, at Da-
mascus, 212.

Nablus, one of the oldest towns of
history, 157.

Nativity, Church of the, 144.

Nazareth, early home of the Saviour,
177.

Nebo, Mount, 129, 134.
Noah, tomb of, 247.

Obelisks, American tourists at the, 12.
Olive oil, made in primitive manner,
116.

Olives, production of, in Syria, 269.

Omar, Mosque of, water supply for,
34; on site of Solomon's Temple, 36,
48; its history, 62; kept under Mos-
lem guard by the British, 282.

Oman, the Jebusite, threshing-floor of,
59, 64.

Palestine, returned to Christian and
Jew, 1 ; first view of its shores, 1 5 ;
comparative size, 30; character of
the country, 31; farming in, 159;
under the British, 280.

Palestine Exploration Fund excava-
tions at Gezer, 27.

Palm Sunday in Jerusalem, 92.

Patriarch of Jerusalem, a talk with
the, 10 1.

Peas, the Field of, 142.

Pilgrimages to the Holy City, 14, 40,
48, 49, 53-

Pithom, treasure city of Pharaoh, 8.

Place of the Skull, the, 46, 154.

Pontius Pilate, house of, 93.

Pool of Gihon, 139.

Pool of Hezekiah, 35, 36.

Pool of Siloam, 35, 54.
Pools of Solomon, now a poor water
supply, 34.

Quarrels between the sects, 106.

Rachel, Tomb of, 142.
Railroads in the Holy Land, 242.
Rainfall, scanty proportion of, 34.
Rameses, treasure city of Pharaoh, 8.
Religions, strength of the different,
1 10.

Robert College, Constantinople, in-
fluence of, 253.

Roses, Valley of, 140.

Rothschild, Baron Edward, founds
Jewish colonies in Palestine, 171,
174, 176.

Ruins, the world's mighty, 233.

Russian hospice, the, 53.

Russians, chief pilgrims to the Holy
Land, 53.

Saladin, tomb of, at Damascus, 211.

Samaritans, among the, 149.

Samson's fight with the Philistines,
place of, 26.

Samuel, Tomb of, 154.

St. Helena, locates place of the Cruci-
fixion, 51.

St. Stephen, place of the stoning of,
45-

St. Paul, tracing footsteps of, 211;

place of his escape over wall of

Damascus, 213.
St. Peter and his dream, 20.
Schools of Nazareth, the, 184.
Scopus, Mount, 154.
Sea of Galilee, 131, 187.
Seilum, the ancient Shiloh, 155.
Sepulchre of Christ, the, 91.
Seth, tomb of, 247.

Shechem, one of the oldest towns of

history, 157.
Sheep, the fat-tailed variety, 141, 160.
Shepherds, Field of the, 142.
Shiloh, now called Seilum, 155.
Shops of Jerusalem, smallness of the,

113.

Silk production in Syria, 268.
Siloam, Pool of, 35, 44.
Simon the Tanner, house of, 20.
Skull, Place of the, 154.
Smyrna, largest city in Asia Minor,
267.

296

INDEX

Sodom and Gomorrah, sites of, 137.

Solomon, Pools of, now a poor water
supply, 34.

Solomon's Temple, lumber for, landed
at Jaffa, 17, 66, 241; Mosque of
Omar on site of, 36, 48; site of, 45;
holiest spot on the globe, 57; di-
mensions of, 67.

Souvenirs, the purchase of, 222.

Spaffordites, colony of the, in Pales-
tine, 173.

Sphinx, legend of the Holy Family at
the, 11.

Stone of Unction, the, 49, 89.

Storekeepers of Jerusalem, in.

Street called Straight, the, at Damas-
cus, 212; shopping in, 214.

Suk Wadi Baroda, on Damascus-
Beirut railway, 246.

Superstitions of the Jews, 78.

Syria under the British, 280.

Tabernacle of Moses, site of, 65.

Taxes and their collection in Pales-
tine, 167.

Temples of Baalbek, 233.

Tiberias on Sea of Galilee, 193.

Tomb of Christ, the, 90; of Dorcas, 21;
Fatima, 210; of Lazarus, 123; of
Noah, 247; of Rachel, 142; of Sala-
din, 211; of Samuel, 154, of Seth,
247.

Tower of Babel, at Baalbek, 234.
Tower of David, the, 36.
Tuberculosis among the Bedouin
tribes, 260.

Unction, Stone of, 49, 89.

United Presbyterian Church, educa-
tional institutions of, in Nile Valley,
252.

Valley of Roses, 140.
Veiled women of Damascus, the, 223.
Virgin Mary, jewel-covered image of,
at Jerusalem, 50.

Washing the feet, ceremony of, 95.

Watch towers of Jerusalem, the, 43.

W'ater supply, by scanty wells and
cisterns, 34.

Weddings, in cemeteries, 82.

Wrell of the Magi, 141.

Wilhelm II, breach in wall of Jerusa-
lem in honour of, 139; places golden
wreath on tomb of Saladin, 2 1 1 ; his
trip through the Holy Land, 233,
250.

Women, veiled, of Damascus, 223.
Women's rights in the Holy Land, 230.

Zagazig, a famous cotton port, 4.
Zammarin, Jewish colony at, 174.
Zangwill, Israel, talk with on Zionist

movement, 198.
Zion, Mount, view from, 37; on the

slope of, 43.
Zionist colonies in Palestine, 170.
Zionist movement, the, 196.
Zimpel, originator of Jaffa- Jerusalem

railroad idea, 26.
Zorah, birthplace of Samson, 27.

297

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